I’ll get back to actual content, real information tomorrow.  We finished the conference today, and it was exhausting but, as always, very gratifying.  I was talking with some of the organiing staff and other faculty, as well as many of the audience attendees.  Overall, I heard a lot of enthusiastic, effusive comments about how enjoyable and refreshing the format was.  The expert panelists all seem to really enjoy this format as well, where we walk people through a tough case as it unfolded, with no clear answers from big clinical trials to light our way.  This means we have to rely on our interpretations and our synthesizing of information to develop our recommended approaches.  In fact, this meeting couldn’t be dull, because there are 8-10 expert panelists who support at least 4-5 different strategies among them.  Now it’s fair to say that we see a lot of cases that don’t give us fits about the right thing to do.  We collect these cases from all year round, selecting the ones that we know will generate the richest discussion.  (I’m certain I’m right on all of the other cases all year!).

   Fortunately, we are all people who respect each other even though we don’t come up with the same answers.  I’m not sure if patients and family members would be exhilirated or mortified to hear recognized experts interpret the options so differently.   In truth, I think it’s very important for us to defend why we recommended what we did, and to hear how other people interpret the hardest cases.  Working with the same people throughout the year, who are all coming in with our personal perspectives, it’s valuable for us all to challenge ourselves to incorporate the perspectives of people who live and work and think outside of our daily circles.  I can see how our group has modified our thoughts after prior meetings, based on the information presented from outside people and the discussions that occurred.  It’s hard to wrestle with so many views, but I’m glad that we incorporate new ideas rather than take our unchallenged ideas on faith. 

   One great idea I had is that as a modification of our plan, we add a format of Survivor.  After each case, maybe we’ll have the experts suggest their strategy, and the one that get’s the fewest votes from the audience gets voted off of the panel!  Just a thought…