Emphasizing advocacy, global health at the American Thoracic Society 2023 Conference

Key takeaways:

• Social determinants of health, climate change/air quality and gun violence are the topics of the ATS 2023 meeting keynote sessions.
• Attendees can expect to network and hear the latest research in pulmonology.

The American Thoracic Society International Conference will be held May 19 to 24 in Washington, D.C., with a broad focus on advocacy and global health in many different forms.

Debra Boyer

Healio spoke with Debra Boyer, MD, MHPE, and Andrew J. Halayko, PhD, ATSF, FCAHS, international conference committee co-chairs, ahead of the meeting to highlight major themes of the meeting, sessions of importance and what attendees can expect from this year’s ATS conference.

Advocacy, major themes

At this year’s conference, three keynote presentations set the stage for the major themes of the meeting, with focuses on social determinants of health, climate change/air quality and gun violence, Boyer and Halayko told Healio. Notably, these topics have the overarching theme of advocacy.

“Because we are in Washington, D.C., there is more than the usual amount of content on advocacy,” Halayko said.

The first presentation in the keynote series, newly named the inaugural Fran Comi Keynote Lecture, will be given by Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, MD, on May 21 and will cover social determinants of health, specifically focusing on health disparities and health equity.

Attendees will also see this theme throughout the meeting, with notable symposia including “Achieving health equity: Reducing the impact of social determinants of health through research and advocacy” and “Caring for historically marginalized patients: Ethical, legal and advocacy primer for providers.”

The second theme of the meeting revolves around climate change, air quality and lung health, and in the second installment of the keynote series, Gregory P. Downey, MD, FRCPC, ATSF, president of the ATS, will talk about these areas with Michael S. Regan, MPA, BS, administrator of the EPA, on May 22. One of the topics of discussion will be environmental justice, Boyer and Halayko told Healio.

“One of the things that I’m interested to hear about are the rules on setting factory emissions, which are not observed for 24 hours; there are certain times of the day when it is not monitored,” Halayko said. “For people who live in and around those factory areas, that is when they are generally home sleeping, so that’s actually creating disparity, or an environmental injustice.”

In addition to this discussion, Boyer and Halayko said air quality and its impact on health will be broadly showcased during the meeting through Basic Science Core curricula, symposia and poster sessions that look at the topic from a molecular level all the way up to the EPA’s policy decisions.

Attendees can also participate in the ATS Climate Change Rally on Capitol Hill on May 22, a unique offering this year given the conference’s location.

The last installment in the keynote series will take place on May 23 through the form of a panel discussion on reducing gun violence. Members of the ATS critical care assembly will lead this discussion between three policymakers and advocates in the critical care field: Emmy Betz, MD, MPH, Fatimah Loren Dreier, MA, and Joseph V. Sakran, MD.

Unfortunately, this discussion is very relevant in today’s world, Boyer and Halayko told Healio, and hugely affects providers, especially those working in emergency and critical care departments.

“Given Allen, Texas, and many, many others, I think this is a topic that people need to think and talk about,” Halayko said.

‘Taking care of younger members’

The keynote series is just one small part of what is being presented at the 2023 conference, with several opportunities available even before the meeting begins, Boyer told Healio. Prior to the start of the meeting, 14 postgraduate courses directed at individuals in the early stages of their careers are being offered to help the younger members of the community. Notable courses include a fellows track symposium, a new faculty bootcamp, a resident bootcamp and a student scholars’ program.

“A big focus of the ATS is making sure that we're taking care of our younger members and preparing them for their futures,” Boyer told Healio.

Other opportunities for younger members, as well as seasoned members, include Meet the Experts seminars. These sessions allow individuals to hear an expert deep dive into a specific topic in a small group setting. Sign-up is required for these sessions.

Attendees can also visit the Networking Super Center throughout the entire meeting. This year, there are five different centers for networking: the ATS Center, Center for Career Development, International Participant’s Center, Clinician’s Center and the Science and Innovation Center.

‘Emphasis on global health’

When establishing this year’s meeting, a huge emphasis was placed on global health, Boyer and Halayko told Healio.

“I think one aspect that was important to us was to make sure that global health is not just isolated in buckets but that it is also integrated throughout the conference,” Boyer said. “Many sessions, while they do not have global health in their title, will feature some touch on global health or the global effects of what is being discussed.”

Sessions highlighted by Boyer and Halayko included “Global insights into the long-term sequelae of infections beyond COVID,” “Revisiting best buy interventions for the diagnosis and management of chronic respiratory diseases in low- and middle- income countries” and “Double trouble: Air pollutants and tuberculosis.”

In addition to making sure presentations address global health, both co-chairs made sure that the programming committees feature speakers from around the world.

“We were very focused on looking at who our speakers are and making sure we have strong international representation,” Halayko said. “It is really important to us that we have diversity as part of our program in who is speaking, who is running the sessions and who is being included.”

Highlighting important sessions

With an abundance of possible sessions to attend each day, Healio asked Boyer and Halayko about sessions that should not be missed.

On May 21, two important sessions presented by JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine will highlight reports of recently published critical care research and pulmonary research. According to Boyer and Halayko, these sessions showcase significant studies and are always highly attended.

“These are important papers that both journals see as flagship or work that may change the way we do things moving forward,” Halayko said. “It also involves the editors, and they provide commentary as to why a paper is so important and why the journal is so excited about it.”

Another session of importance is “Breaking news: Clinical trial results in pulmonary medicine,” in which results from four recent phase 2 or phase 3 trials will be presented. This year, the topics have a focus on pulmonary arterial hypertension, COPD or asthma.

Boyer and Halayko also told Healio about a two-part series on bronchiectasis that is a collaboration between ATS and CHEST. The first session will take place at this meeting, and the second session will take place in October at the CHEST 2023 Annual Meeting.

Notably, the topic of precision medicine runs through several sessions this year, Halayko told Healio.

“There are more and more sessions on biomarkers or ways of endotyping, genotyping or phenotyping people, and it really spans across most of the diseases that we have featured from critical care, sleep, COPD, obstructive airways disease and lung cancer,” Halayko said.

“What we are seeing is that this world of biomarkers to determine clinical care for people with lung diseases across the spectrum is really part of what we do now,” he added. “We are seeing it evolve before our eyes at the conference, and to me, it is really exciting to think that science we talked about 10 years ago, that was maybe just people working in mice or animal models, we are now seeing at the bedside.”

Other relevant sessions mentioned by the co-chairs that attendees should consider attending include “Cancer in those who have never smoked: New insights from bench to bedside” and “The post COVID viral surge, added viral exposures or lack thereof, influence pediatric and adult immunity.”

Embracing community

When asked what attendees can expect when they walk into this year’s conference, both Boyer and Halayko emphasized community.

“Attendees can expect the opportunity to hear the latest clinical, scientific and advocacy areas,” Boyer said. “They also can expect many opportunities for networking as we all have not seen each other enough. We had a meeting in person last year, but I think we are all starting to come out of our shells a little bit more. There is an emphasis on networking, interaction and working to continue to advance the science to then advance the clinical care of our patients.”

“When people arrive, they are going to feel this huge sense of relief that they are back home,” Halayko said. “The conference is a place that many of us have grown up as professionals, and we do not appreciate that until it is gone. The sense of being part of the community again will come back very quickly.

“In the last 2 or 3 years, it was easy to forget why we do what we do because it felt a bit like a burden, but you come back to this conference saying, ‘Wow, now I remember. This is why I love doing this and is one of the reasons I love being a professional in this space.’”

The Healio team will be onsite in Washington during ATS 2023. Follow our coverage of the meeting here and on Twitter at @HealioPulm.

For more information:

Debra Boyer, MD, MHPE, can be reached at debra.boyer@nationwidechildrens.org.

Andrew J. Halayko, PhD, ATSF, FCAHS, can be reached at andrew.halayko@umanitoba.ca.

Reference:

• ATS 2023 International Conference Itinerary Site. https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/10703. Accessed May 10, 2023.