How to make the most #AHA20

The American Heart Association 2020 annual meeting provides an exceptional chance to learn practice changing insights from late-breaking-scientific sessions and share meaningful networking opportunities. It comes as no surprise the excellent organization of the #AHA20 virtual conference and I have personally enjoyed attending most if not all of the online sessions as they were very engaging and enlightening. After attending today’s sessions, I felt empowered, motivated, and excited to continue my journey of training in cardiovascular medicine and research, most importantly I felt rejuvenated as I am now up-to-date with the latest findings of late-breaking trials.

In this blog a share with you tips on how to make the most of the AHA20 conference:\

Organize your session schedule

As with any conference, you need to organize your schedule. It would be beneficial to overview the #AHA20 online planner and have an idea about the sessions that are presented during the day with the corresponding time for these sessions. Taking a close look at the conference schedule allows you to prioritize the sessions you want to attend live. It might be useful to set a reminder or even block your calendar for sessions that you want to be sure to watch live.   One of the great features of the AHA20 is that sessions are available on-demand after the conference until January 4th, providing attendees more flexibility and a great opportunity to attend as many sessions as possible.

Familiarize yourself with the conference page tools

It is intuitive to test the platform and familiarize yourself with the features of the conference website, also, to test your audio and WiFi connection before attending one of the live zoom sessions. Laptops or desktop computers work better than viewing sessions on a smartphone, however, the #AHA20 platform is generally compatible with mobile devices.

Dedicate some time for learning

One of the tips I decided to adopt this year for #AHA20 conference is to set some time after the conference to go over the notes I’ve taken during the sessions and learn the findings from the late-breaking- scientific sessions as many of what has been discussed today in these trials could have an impact on clinical practice and improving patients health outcome.

Lastly, make sure to have fun.

One of the ways of having fun this year is to engage with the Early Career Bloggers on Twitter, make sure you follow them and interact with their posts. Reading twitter threads and discussions are also very interesting and a fun way to socialize during the AHA conference.

“The views, opinions and positions expressed within this blog are those of the author(s) alone and do not represent those of the American Heart Association. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them. The Early Career Voice blog is not intended to provide medical advice or treatment. Only your healthcare provider can provide that. The American Heart Association recommends that you consult your healthcare provider regarding your personal health matters. If you think you are having a heart attack, stroke or another emergency, please call 911 immediately.”