We need Abstracts for the 2012 ASET Annual Conference in St. Paul!

What goes on behind the scenes in the ASET Education office in the months before the annual conference??  How do we find all those speakers??

The first step is the appointment of the Program Committee to manage the General Session, and the selection of course directors to manage specific courses offered at our annual conference.  These key meeting planners do receive some benefits in return for all the time they devote to working with me on the program.  They get free registration for the days of the conference that involve sessions they manage, and partial coverage of their hotel expenses.  From December on, they have worked with me on a weekly basis to come up with ideas for interesting topics to present and research possible speakers to give presentations.  Ideally, it is best to include both “local talent” from the medical centers in the area surrounding our meeting site, and long-distance speakers who travel to attend the meeting and give talks as well.

I am now collecting Abstracts for both platform and poster presentations.  Abstract presenters get free registration for the day of their presentation, and their abstracts are published in the ASET Journal, so you become a recognized scientific journal contributor!  Please consider submitting an abstract by the March 15^th deadline.  The abstract form is right on the ASET home page.  It is simple to fill out, and you must add a 100-200 word document, describing the title and content of your abstract.  Examples of abstract topics include: new procedures you might be doing, case studies, management techniques, research projects, etc.  For some helpful tips, click here.

We are also seeking a few speakers for our courses. Right now, many of our course slots are filled, but we are still seeking speakers for the ICU Monitoring Course on Aug. 2^nd, and the LTM/Epilepsy Course on Aug. 4^th.  If you have a topic in mind, and would like to give a course lecture, please contact me at faye@aset.org.  I would also love to get referrals from you for physician speakers from those great docs that you work with!

I am very excited about the meeting highlights that we have planned!  Our Keynote Speaker is Dr. Brien Smith, who is the Chair of the Epilepsy Foundation.  He is an epileptologist with a history of epilepsy!  Our Kathleen Mears Lecture will be presented by Janice Buleow, an R.N. who is also active with the Epilepsy Foundation.  She has been working with their patient safety committee, to publish new standards and guidelines for caring for patients with epilepsy.  She will present an overview of the new guidelines and recommendations for standards of care in the EMU.  Our 2012 Symposium is titled: “Establishing Alarm Criteria for all Neurodiagnostic Modalities” and this promises to be a hot topic that will include information we can use in the workplace every day!

You’ll see more as the planning of the conference is finalized, and we’ll be sending out our first meeting brochure next month.  St. Paul will be a great meeting location! We have a river-front hotel and the Mall of America right around the corner!

The Mall of America has a theme park ride called Brain Surge, so you know we all have to give it a try!

Please contact me if you wish to discuss a possible lecture topic or an abstract presentation!