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Published: September 27th 2012
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As a prelude to the morning, I must let you know that Lisa S. (HCMA President) found me at my hotel the night before. We went to the Ponte Vecchio area by cab and found a nice, small, quaint restaurant for dinner. We had a lovely bottle of wine and lots of conversation about the direction of heart screenings, dna testing and cardiac health care! To top off all the wild conversation, I had wild boar for dinner! At first the thought of it was odd, but Lisa assured me that it would be tasty! She was right, I really enjoyed the local treat!
Back to the hotel late, but up early, had a quick breakfast, then luggage in hand, called a cab for the short ride over to the conference. The location of the conference was right next to the termini ... hmmm, really didn't need to hunt for the university location the day before. All I needed to do was look on line at yahoomaps and the arrow pointed me to the Florence Conference Center. After checking in with the front desk, I made my way to the conference lobby and waited for the organizer, to tell her
of the dilemma from our first night with no hotel reservations. Hmmm, no real effort to correct the problem, and no sincere apology makes for an awkward moment. More on that later!
There weren't many research posters hung in the room. As a novice researcher, I wasn't sure how to find the right number. One of the other nice reserachers helped me find the master list, my sur-name and all the poster locations. Then on to the mini-conference break out sessions. Turns out the conference didn't kick off until 5 pm that night and it would rock the next two days until 8 pm each night. Ugh, not what I call fun.
Here is the highlight of my trip! Have you ever walked into a room and wondered if you should go left or right. Then later on after meeting the right and perfect person (Dr. T.) from Tucson, AZ you realized that was exactly why you were meant to turn left. Dr. T. spoke on the importance of comprehensive care of the HCM patient and I was truly impressed. After she sat down, next to me, I handed her my card and said ... "great talk, let's
get together because I live in Phoenix, AZ!" We chatted later on. She has been in AZ since January and would love to help ABF with screenings / connections for the Tucson area!
The rest of the day was a blur. There was no place to set up my computer and take notes, so I had to hand write notes and lug my computer bag around all day. Not too many other faces recognized me from the last confernece in 2006, but I was able to place the main characters of the HCM world / research. I did briefly speak to the conference organizer, Dr. Cecchi but I didn't have much interaction with the crowd. There seemed to be about 250 attendees ... 100 more from the time before!
Then the very last presenter spoke about the "difference between USA, Europe and the rest of the world!" Many of his comments were okay, but he was not too accurate about the programs of screening that are happening in the USA. Well, I couldn't just not say anything! When it was time for questions, I raised my hand, introduced myself and stated, "I heard earlier in the conference that
we should all work together. There are well over 300 groups hosting cardiac screenings in the US, we are one of them. We have data, we have programs and we would like your help to share in changing the face of screenings for kids in the US!" He rebutted that the screenings shouldn't be just for athletes. I assured him that the Anthony Bates Foundation is screening with ultrasound, ekg & blood pressure "All kids" 12 years and up! "Bless you!" he stated!
Have you ever felt like you were not welcome! For the rest of the conference. There has not been any conversation for such collaberations. Of course, all the goodies (bags, flashlights and bookmarks) I brought for the attendees were taken before the end of the first day. I wonder if that is a delayed reaction to contact us later? The next days we will see how it goes, but my marks on their survey will not be good!
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