Shaffer Mok, MD, Education Committee Chair
Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, in June your OGS board made the decision to cancel the Sept. 12 in person annual meeting and plan a hybrid virtual event. All gastroenterologists in Ohio were mailed an OGS logo mask and received an email explaining the new meeting format and thanking members for their support (and encouraging those who were not members to join). During the planning process we were approached by the South Carolina Gastroenterology Association (SCGA), referred by the ACG who heard we were going to do a virtual meeting. After discussion, we agreed they could join in our meeting, which resulted in a great opportunity to collaborate.
To keep the annual meeting webinar to a reasonable time limit, the speakers agreed to pre-record their presentations that would be available as ‘homework’ and then join the in person webinar on Sept. 12 for a 10-minute discussion. This time was well used to recap the session pearls and assess learning by conducting two questions using a polling feature, which was very successful in allowing for ‘chat’ discussion and Q&A.
While not everyone preferred a virtual meeting and hope to resume meeting in person, the majority of participants were very satisfied with the presentations and gave comments such as, along with useful feedback to improve if we offer a virtual meeting in the future.
I thought the availability of these lectures for review on my time schedule was important and more beneficial to me. The quality of the lectures was excellent and so were the topics. Excellent job in organizing this event, and the technology was easy.
Very helpful. Afford the opportunity to review the presentation multiple times gaining clarity.
I enjoy it in that I could listen at my own time.
I thought the quality of the presentations was excellent. The technology was surprisingly good. I wound up doing the entire conference and presentations on my phone and it worked great.
The pre-recorded education sessions were approved for 4.0 AMA PRA Category 1™ credit and the Sept. 12 meeting approved for 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1™ credit for a total of 6.5 possible credits. If you have not yet viewed the education sessions, you can request access to the recordings at www.ohiogisociety.org/annual-meeting and earn 4.0 credits through Dec. 31, 2020. During the break, we heard from the four Corporate Sponsors, and the SCGA members left the meeting to conduct their own business meeting. We began the second half of our meeting with a legislative update and two excellent presentations by the scientific abstract winners We'am Hussain, MD, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine (Abstract #16) and Sophie Trujillo, DO, MetroHealth Medical Center (Abstract #10). Overall we had 16 abstract submissions.
We finished with an informative Covid-19 Lessons Learned panel discussion with Costas Kefalas, MD; Bruce Hennessy, MD; and Miguel Regueiro, MD and the OGS business meeting. 99 registered (89 physicians and 10 APP/NP/RN) and 92 joined the webinar. And . . . we started on time at 8:00 am and ended on time exactly at 11:00 am! Sponsors and Exhibitors It was more difficult to secure sponsors and exhibitors this year since many companies were not approving funds for virtual meetings. We are grateful for those who joined us. You can view the virtual exhibits at: www.ohiogisociety.org/2020exhibits
Corporate Sponsors
AbbVie Immunology
Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Janssen Biotech, Inc.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.
Virtual Exhibitors
AbbVie Gastroenterology Care
AbbVie Hepatology
CoverMyMeds
CSL Behring
ERBE USA
Nestle Health Science
Pfizer
No decisions have been made yet for the 2021 Annual Meeting date, location, or format.