Tucson’s Casino del Sol to host ACP-AZ Scientific Meeting, Nov. 8-9

Tucson and the Casino del Sol Resort, 5655 W. Valencia Road, will host the 2024 Arizona Chapter Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Physicians on Nov. 8-9, with Indu S. Partha, MD, FACP, the ACP-AZ Education Committee chair, serving as chair of the meeting as well.

An internist, Dr. Partha also is a clinical associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, and associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program – Tucson Campus, the largest residency program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson or Phoenix. Dr. Partha said the Scientific Meeting is the state’s premier educational event for internal medicine held on an annual basis.

“Coming off a record turnout in Phoenix last year, we’re hoping to attract as many medical students interested in internal medicine, internal medicine resident and fellow physicians, and physicians practicing in internal medicine from throughout the state of Arizona as we can,” she added. “This year, we’re also really seeking to enhance collaboration between academic and community physicians to promote internal medicine and primary care statewide as a specialty unto itself. We really want to bridge that divide, which is why this meeting’s theme is ‘Town & Gown: Collaboration, Not Competition.’”

That’s not to say there’s no competition, as there are four contests the meeting hosts between medical students and resident physicians statewide:

• Friday, Nov. 8 | 4:10-5:10 p.m. – Poster Judging & Exhibits
• Friday, Nov. 8 | 5:30-7:00 p.m. – Governor’s Reception: New Fellows & Masters & Great Debates Final 
• Saturday, Nov. 9 | 9:10-10:45 a.m. – Oral Vignettes
• Saturday, Nov. 9 | 3:20-4:35 p.m. – Doctor’s Dilemma Final.

New this year are the Great Debates – a college or high school debate club-style contest with three to four members per team. Designed to inject more spirit, fun and camaraderie into the meeting, the debates’ inspiration came from current ACP-AZ Chapter Governor Allan Markus, MD, MBA, FACP, founding director of Dignity Health’s internal medicine residency program. Preliminary rounds held Sept. 28 had his Dignity Health East Valley team prevailing over Tucson Medical Center’s team. The Arizona winners will faceoff against the Nevada state winners in Tucson, with Nevada’s ACP chapter hosting the two statewide winners at its scientific meeting next year.

The Doctor’s Dilemma contest is a Jeopardy-style competition that’s historically generated a lot of excitement over bragging rights. Preliminary rounds between teams across the state will be Oct. 29-30 via Zoom, with winning teams competing during the Scientific Meeting. The reigning champions from last year are the U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix team.

The posters contest will be fierce with record submissions this year, Dr. Partha noted. “We had 125 medical students across the state who submitted posters. And, I believe, 138 resident physicians posters were accepted as well. So, our trainees and students are excited for ACP as a source for showing off their scholarly work.”

Statewide winners represent the ACP-AZ Chapter at the national ACP meeting, which will be in April 2025 in New Orleans.

The ACP-AZ Chapter Scientific Meeting cycles every other year between Phoenix and Tucson, with the event chair in years it’s held in Tucson drawn usually from the Department of Medicine. It’s last time in Tucson, Dalia Mikhael, MD, also from the  Division of Inpatient Medicine, chaired the meeting. In 2020, the Division of Nephrology’s Bijin Thajudeen, MD, chaired it. The next time, two years from now, Bujii Ainapurpu, MD, another Inpatient Medicine faculty member, will chair it.

In its second year, a “Point-of-Care Ultrasound Hands-on Skills Session,” will be hosted from 8-11 a.m., Nov. 8, that will be available for ACP-AZ Chapter member and non-member physicians and can be bundled with their Scientific Meeting registration. ACP members save up to $170 on the meeting and up to $85 on the session.

REGISTER FOR BOTH HERE!

The keynote address, “Asian Health Disparities: Activism and Advocacy,” will be given Saturday, Nov. 9, 8:05-9 a.m., by Elisa Choi, MD, FACP, FIDSA. Dr. Choi is an internal medicine/HIV medicine/infectious diseases specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. A Harvard Medical School population medicine instructor, she has served as a member of the ACP Board of Regents, Massachusetts representative to the ACP Board of Governors, immediate past chair of the ACP Board of Governors, ACP representative to the American Medical Association House of Delegates, and a member at-large for the AMA Women Physicians Section - Governing Council.

Among presenters from the U of A are:
 

Friday, Nov. 8

• 12:30-1:10 p.m. | CME Lecture 1 – “What’s New in Women’s Health?” with Joy Bulger Beck, MD, FACP, clinical assistant professor, Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine, COM-T/B-UMCT
• 3:30-4:10 p.m. | CME Lecture 5 – “Updates in Critical Care” with Christian Bime, MD, MSc, FACP, associate professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, and medical director, Medical Intensive Care Unit, Banner – University Medical Center Tucson

Saturday, Nov. 9

• 9:00-9:40 a.m. | CME Lecture 6 – “Updates in Obesity Medicine” with Amit Algotar, MD, PhD, MPH, clinical associate professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, and member, Cancer Prevention & Control Program, U of A Cancer Center

See the full agenda and schedule for the event here.

DOM Event listing: Day One
DOM Event listing: Day Two