“A Few of My Favorite Things” for #OTOMTG24

Daniel C. Chelius, Jr., MD AAO-HNSF Coordinator, Annual Meeting Program

It feels a bit surreal that we are already only six months away from our annual reunion of the global otolaryngology community at the AAO-HNSF 2024 Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, Saturday September 28 – Tuesday, October 1, in Miami Beach, Florida. Please make special note of these dates for your travel planning purposes as we kick off the programming Saturday morning with the Opening Ceremony at 8:00 am (ET). The meeting days for 2024 have shifted to a Saturday-to-Tuesday program in response to attendee feedback and our endeavor to lessen your weekday time away from your practices, your patients, and your communities. Registration opens in mid-May so look for more information from the AAO-HNSF in the May Bulletin EXTRA and weekly OTO News.

The past few months have been focused on reviewing the Call for Science submissions and planning for a spectacular program that encapsulates science and education, networking, peer-to-peer engagement, and all the elements to set the tone for an extraordinary event this fall. As you heard from some of the members of the Annual Meeting Program Committee (AMPC) in the April issue, opportunities are plentiful, and the anticipation is high for the 2024 Annual Meeting. The 62 members of the AMPC have, once again, come together to select our scientific and education presentations. By the time this is published, the program will be set, and registration will be opening in mid-May.

Here are just ten things I’m already ecstatic about for this fall’s meeting:

1. An Incredible Gathering: We received over 2,500 submissions to this year’s Call for Science, including a 30% increase in international submissions. This is our largest turnout ever and signals the enthusiasm in our community for the Miami Beach meeting. I think we can expect an excellent crowd!  
   
   
2. AAO-HNS/F President Douglas D. Backous, MD, has invited an expert panel of otolaryngology leaders who have coped with and overcome disability in their practices to discuss this critical issue facing so many in our community. I’m personally excited that one of my first mentors and long-time inspirations, Eugene L. Alford, MD, will be joining the presentation.   
   
   
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Mini Track: President-elect Troy D. Woodard, MD, and Artificial Intelligence Task Force Chair Konstantina M. Stankovic, MD, PhD, have organized a broad education program on the impacts and challenges of AI in our field, including four Panel Presentations and an AI-focused Scientific Oral session on Monday, September 30.
   
   
4. Women in Otolaryngology (WIO) Section General Assembly: Coming off their record-setting 2023 General Assembly with inspirational Nashville songwriter Laura Veltz, the WIO Executive Committee and Chair Yelizaveta (Lisa) Shnayder, MD, are preparing a dynamic program for Miami Beach. Responding to the request for more networking opportunities as the section has grown since its inception in 2010, the WIO leaders have arranged for a formal program as part of day one of the Annual Meeting programming (Saturday morning, September 28), followed by a networking lunch event.  
   
   
5. Conversation on Care Equity: Striving toward care equity is one of the greatest challenges facing our community in the next 20 years. How do we ensure that the patients who desperately need us have access to the same safe, high-quality otolaryngic care regardless of where they live, their personal financial resources, and their social determinants of health? While observational studies have filled the literature, solutions remain elusive. We hope to bring focus to this conversation in the Care Equity, Quality, and Safety Track launched this year. The Call for Science response was exceptional, and we can’t wait to hear the discussions throughout the scientific and didactic sessions in this track.
   
   
6. Cutting-edge Scientific Oral and Poster Presentations: With almost 1,800 scientific submissions to this year’s meeting, the competition for presentation opportunities has never been higher; and the quality of the accepted abstracts reflects that. The future of our specialty will be on display in the poster hall and across the scientific sessions.
   
   
7. Our maturing Simulation Center: In 2023, we launched the Simulation Center in our Nashville host hotel owing to space limitations. The Simulation Center will return to the convention center in Miami Beach with updated favorites and creative new courses. Several of the wildly popular simulation courses making a return this year are “Emergency Airway Management for Medical Students: Oto Chautauqua LIVE!”, which will engage medical students on day two of the Annual Meeting (Sunday morning, September 29), and “A Puzzling Night on Call: An Otolaryngology Escape Experience,” which will run throughout the morning and early afternoon Sunday with the winning teams announced at the Simulation Reception on Sunday night. Operationalizing simulation on a large scale for a meeting like ours remains a significant challenge, but we expect the best iteration yet this fall, incorporating lessons learned from our first three years.
   
   
8. Stump the Experts! In our meeting evaluations, we consistently hear that attendees would like more opportunity to discuss their difficult cases with top experts in the field. While informal conversations with thought leaders in the halls of the meeting are one of the highlights for me every year, we’ve created a new set of sessions specifically to facilitate this discussion. Subspecialty “Stump the Experts” sessions will run throughout the meeting and will give us a chance either to get new perspectives on our own cases or possibly to realize that the experts can be just as stumped as we are sometimes.
   
   
9. Crucial Conversations (Part II) There are some overarching conversations in our field that require extensive multidisciplinary discourse from a diverse group of stakeholders representing the full spectrum of practice models and settings. Our Academy and our Annual Meeting are perfectly and uniquely situated to entertain these topics. We launched the Crucial Conversations platform in 2023 with an inaugural panel organized by Past President Albert L. Merati, MD, discussing the multiple viewpoints and responsibilities involved in selecting and training the future otolaryngology workforce. We will see the conversation continue this fall with a specific emphasis on how these training decisions will impact our ability to provide equitable care across our communities in the future.
   
   
10. The Great Debates will be back for the fourth iteration this fall! The perennially well reviewed and well attended sessions will feature thought leaders arguing their perspectives on some of the toughest clinical and professional dilemmas facing us.

Although these are ten aspects specific to the meeting that I’m greatly anticipating this fall, the truth is that I am most excited about seeing my dear friends, some of whom I’ve known since college, some who have become my closest confidants in the halls of the Academy, and the full spectrum in between. So please join us for what promises to be one of our best reunions yet.