first time attendee – The Early Career Voice

AHA20 Scientific Sessions From the Perspective of a New Attendee

November 15, 2020November 15, 2020 Sasha Prisco, MD, PhD

I was overwhelmed when I attended Scientific Sessions for the first time last year. There were thousands of participants and dozens of sessions occurring simultaneously in a very large convention center. It was challenging to try to attend all of the sessions that I was interested in. I was frequently disoriented in the large convention center. Coordinating central meeting spots with colleagues was difficult. Although AHA20 is virtual this year, seeing the vast number of sessions available covering many important topics can still be overwhelming, especially to a first-time attendee. As I mentioned in my last blog, trying to prioritize live events over OnDemand events may help keep you engaged during the conference.

For this blog, I wanted to feature the perspective of Javier E. Sierra-Pagan, a first-time attendee of Scientific Sessions. Javier is an F30-funded medical scientist (MD/PhD) trainee (who is in his 5th year in the program, 3rd year as a PhD student) at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He is currently studying mechanisms of cardiovascular development and regeneration. He is interested in Cardiology. I am fortunate to work at the same research institute as Javier and have his lab bench next to mine!

Question: What are you looking forward to at AHA Scientific Sessions this year? Any specific events that you are interested in?

Javier: I’m really looking forward to listening to good talks regarding cardiovascular development and disease. Given the current pandemic, I am particularly interested in any talks regarding SARS-CoV-2 and its implications on cardiovascular disease. As a young trainee, I’m interested in attending some of the networking events to get to know more individuals in my field of research.

Question: How has your experience with AHA Scientific Sessions been so far?

Javier: It has been great so far. I felt a little overwhelmed at the beginning with how big this conference is, but after setting my agenda and identifying good talks to attend to, I felt more comfortable and very excited about Scientific Sessions.

Question: How are you preparing for AHA Scientific Sessions?

Javier: I’m approaching Scientific Sessions with an open mind. It is my first time attending it and I’m just trying to learn as much as I can from both basic science, as well as clinical medicine. The benefit of having such a big conference is that I can learn a little bit from so many different areas in the field of cardiology.

Question: How has COVID-19 affected your research?

Javier: The pandemic has put a lot of stress on everybody for sure. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was fortunate to be primarily focused on writing and submitting a manuscript, which allowed me to work from home. Now we are in a different situation entering November. I am working more hours in the laboratory and trying to stay safe while also maintaining my productivity. I haven’t had any significant setbacks with regards to my thesis, but I did want to attend some conferences in the Spring that were ultimately canceled because of COVID-19.

Question: Anything else you want to add?

Javier: I look forward to attending more AHA meetings in the future (hopefully in person) and interacting with colleagues from the field. I definitely miss the scientific conversations that happen in the hallways or in the elevators when you are trying to get to a lecture room.

Thank you, Javier, for discussing your experience with other trainees!

Remember that you can watch all of the OnDemand AHA20 content until January 4, 2021, which can help relieve the stress of cramming in as many sessions as possible into 5 days. If you are an early career investigator or trainee and would like to be featured in one of my upcoming monthly blogs, please let me know (you can message me on Twitter or email me at [email protected])!

“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.”

Bring Your Whole Self to Work

August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 Nasrien E. Ibrahim, MD

“Pretend you are going to be interviewed by a conservative, old white man in a bowtie”.

This was the advice I was given when I asked what I should wear, how I should do my hair, and how I should present myself when I interviewed for medical school. I remembered those words when I interviewed for every step of my journey in medicine since, including 1 residency, 3 fellowships, and my first “real” job as an attending. I wore conservative-colored suits (I remember my younger brother telling me I looked like a flight attendant before one interview- not the look I was going for, but okay), always straightened my hair (I never wore my natural curls), and I always thought of that advice before every interview- conservative, old, white, man, bowtie.

Fast forward to “attending’hood”, I would never heed that advice. I started wearing my hair curly as a protest to what “professional” hair should look like, presented on stage in pink blazers and dresses, and brought my whole self to work. When I interview prospective internal medicine residents or cardiology fellows, the most important 3 pieces of their application in my opinion are their letters of recommendation, their personal statement, and their extracurricular activities outside of medicine. While the abstracts, presentations, and publications are fantastic, they do not tell me who you are as a human being. From the letters, you get a glimpse of how others see the applicant, from the personal statement you hear a story, and from the extracurricular activities you learn about passions. My favorite part of the interviews is talking to candidates about who they are, what lights that fire within them, and what kind of vibe they bring to medicine. When I read your application, I want to know your story.

I love what I do in medicine- advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology- I love the research I do but I also love my life outside of medicine. And I am always confused when people are surprised that I love college football, I love LeBron James, my favorite radio show is The Breakfast Club, and I listen to trap music. I love going to concerts, throwing outrageous birthday parties, and going on girls’ trips. I care deeply about equity in medicine and politics that affect the most vulnerable among us and will continue to work my butt off to crush inequities in organ allocation. To me, these are not 2 different worlds. This is just my whole world. So yes, I will keep bringing my whole self to work.

To be completely honest, I am not sure how I should advise my mentees, most of whom are women and men of color, on how to dress or style their hair or carry themselves during their interviews. People of color are judged more harshly, and I would not want my advice of bringing your whole self to the interview be the reason they did not get the position. But then again, who wants to be at a place that does not accept all of them.

I still say, bring your whole self. Every part of it. The authentic you.

And to my mentees I say, continue sharing your magic with a world that desperately needs it.

Interviewing a first-time conference attendee

August 11, 2020August 11, 2020 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

Conference attendance is a core component of the journey graduate students go on, seeking to advance their knowledge and expand their network within the field of their academic pursuit. This year, unlike any other year before it, some students and early career professionals are experiencing their very first major conference participation and attendance in a virtual setting. The current global pandemic and response to it has forced many major conferences to cancel their planned in-real-life settings, and many have opted to switch these important annual gatherings to a brand new all-virtual format. This of course is a valiant effort to continue providing a platform for networking and sharing knowledge within the community.

While many of us have had the chance in previous years to attend and participate in classic conference formats, I continued to think recently while attending #BCVS20 about how is this unique virtual experience being perceived by the first time major conference attendees? The all-new format and change in typical factors that come into play when one is attending a conference, normally in an unfamiliar location in a city or country, all add up to a very novel introduction to this core component of career advancement. It would be quite illuminating to engage and discuss with a first-time attendee about this experience, and there at #BCVS20, I was lucky to know and have a chance to interview a first-timer to major conference attendance, one who also happens to be my friend and soon-to-be Master’s in Science degree holder, Ms. Supriya Hota (Twitter: @supriyahota28).

Here is a lightly edited version of the interview we conducted on webcam (Zoom meeting!), shortly after the end of the #BCVS20 meeting:

Mo: To start with a big-picture view of the experience, could you tell us how the overall experience was like, after many hours of content, over 4 days of back-to-back sessions, full of novel basic science research?

SH: If I were to summarize my overall experience in three words, it would be: thrilling, fascinating, and inspirational! My colleagues and mentors, including yourself (Blogger note: Happy to be part of the team!) have always told me great things about the AHA conferences, and I must say #BCVS20 was truly one-of-a-kind, even when it was a virtual one this year. Every day of the conference, I was able to feel the energy and enthusiasm right from my small computer screen! #BCVS20 was also a life-changing experience for me because it truly encouraged me to pursue higher education in the field of cardiovascular sciences. So here I am, looking forward to attending more conferences like #BCVS20 and networking with potential supervisors in the near future!

Mo: Focusing on the virtual format for the event, as a first-time attendee for a major international meeting, do you think the setting was adequate and sufficient in meeting your expectations and intentions for attending a meeting like this?

SH: Primarily, my expectation was to get an update of the basic science research that is happening in the field, especially in the area that I study, which focuses on the role of inflammation in heart failure. I also intended to interact with the presenters by asking questions. The virtual format was more than sufficient to meet those intentions. For example, I was able to jump from one concurrent session to the other, so that I didn’t miss a presentation I was interested in. Therefore, I leave #BCVS20 with a substantial amount of information, not only in my research area, but also other areas in the field of cardiovascular science. On top of that, accessing materials and on-line sessions was very convenient via the BCVS Heart Hub. Moreover, I was able to focus on the presentations and take note of the specific details on images or graphs via the virtual format more so than I would’ve been if I had attended the real-life conference, because either I would have been sitting too far from the screen or distracted by attendees leaving or entering the room. Also, the virtual format gave me the courage to ask questions to the presenters, because as a graduate student who is very early in her career, I would have been hesitant to ask a question in a big room full of well-known scientists. Lastly, most of the sessions were on-time, giving everyone the opportunity to discuss the scientific data and personally encourage the presenters via supportive messages in the chat window, like “Looking forward to your presentation”, “Good Luck” and appreciate the presenters’ work by saying “Fascinating work”, “thank-you for sharing your research”, which I don’t think would have been as possible in a real-life conference.

Mo: Conferences usually serve two main advances to folks that attend them, (1) acquire the newest and most cutting-edge knowledge of what’s happening in the field, and (2) expand one’s network of professional connections within the field. Do you think those two components of conference attendance were served well in a virtual format?

SH: I think the program planning committee has done an outstanding job with displaying the newest and most cutting-edge research. The virtual format has fully served this purpose. As for networking, I do not think the virtual format can ever be equal to in-person meetings. Communicating via message chat is not as engaging as face-to-face communication, which, in the virtual format, might also be a limitation to some people for various reasons, (e.g. they might not have a working camera, they don’t feel comfortable engaging with other attendees from home, etc.). Despite these drawbacks of the virtual format, I think the planning committee and the early career committee have made a significant effort in providing networking opportunities to the attendees. At the same time, most attendees have made good use of those opportunities.

Mo: Follow up – Do you think paring and amplifying social media engagement between conference attendees (and organizers) can help with filling-in some of the networking gaps that precipitate by the virtual format compared to in-person meetings?

SH: I am in full support of amplifying social media engagement because it does assist with networking in a convenient way. For example, I saw that many presenters are actively recruiting talented individuals for open positions in their research programs. What would be a faster way to advertise for this position in the scientific community other than social media? I was disappointed every time some principal investigators were not on social media (Twitter). Even though I could tweet exciting facts about their research, I am still unable to engage with them one-on-one and it will not benefit them in return because others cannot follow their research. Therefore, social media, especially Twitter, assists in promoting one’s research to those who were not able to attend the conference and to the rest of the scientific community. I think social media and its ability to privately message individuals fills in a gap as well, because it gives the attendee the comfort and privacy to have a conversation with another attendee, which is not possible in the chat window of a virtual format where hundred others are listening or using the same message chat box.

Mo: Some of the advantages of virtual meetings include ease of access, lower financial commitments, increased diversity of participants and content being shared at those meetings. Would you say these advantages are persuasive enough for you to recommend this experience to another potential first-timer attending a major conference?

SH: I would definitely recommend BCVS to other potential attendees. As mentioned earlier, the two main purposes of conferences are to acquire the newest and most cutting-edge knowledge in the field, and expand one’s network of professional connections, which the #BCVS20 provided to its attendees. In addition, for sure the lower financial commitments and ease of access due to virtual format are persuasive enough for international graduate students like me to attend.

Mo: Any other comments or advice to give to future conference attendees that have a virtual meeting coming up on their calendars?

SH: I would recommend the following to future virtual conference attendees:

Before the start of the conference:

Create your own schedule for the conference, outlining the sessions you will be attending and when you will have breaks (very important! virtual conferences, like in-person meetings, can still be tiring.)
Make sure that your computer is connected to a working camera and microphone and has all the necessary plug-ins and applications installed for you to watch and participate in the online sessions.
Take the time to explore the Home Page from where you will access all the materials, on-line sessions, and on-demand options.

On the days of the conference:

Actively take notes – this prevents you from getting distracted!
Ask questions and/or provide a supportive or appreciative comment on the presenter’s work (that’s the least you can do)
Tweet about the presentation that fascinates you (Don’t forget to mention and follow the presenter!). Try to make your tweet intriguing by stating takeaways and attaching eye-catching scientific diagrams and results from the presenter’s talk, when allowed.

After the conference:

Organize your notes and create a recap or summary to share the valuable knowledge with your team.

Mo: Thank you so much for this illuminating discussion! And I look forward to attending more conferences where we get a chance to chat and share how those experiences translate to our common goal of advancing our professional career journeys.