I just spoke with Jim Sliwa, media relations manager with ICAAC organizer the American Society for Microbiology, and the conference will be moving from New Orleans to a new place and new dates.

Jim said, “We really wanted to stay in New Orleans–they‘ll need the business–and it‘s so much easier to handle the logistics if you don‘t have to change locations. But we got the Washington, D.C., Convention Center very quickly–when you hear the dates, you‘ll understand why: December 16 to 19. It‘s similar to what happened right after 9/11/01, when ICAAC was in Chicago the week after the attacks. Luckily, the Chicago Convention Center could find dates that worked for us, but again they were the week before Christmas.”

“Now comes the fun–redoing the entire logistics for the convention center in three months,” Sliwa added. Deposits for New Orleans hotels will be refunded, and registration will automatically transfer to the new dates and site. Those who couldn‘t attend the rescheduled ICAAC could get a full refund of registration fees and hotel deposits as long as they notified the organizers before September 23. ICAAC‘s airline partner, United Airlines, also agreed to waive the $100 change fee for ICAAC attendees.

I have a feeling they’re going to be far from alone in having to move a meeting from NOLA and other affected areas. This is so horrible in so many ways.

I just spoke with Jim Sliwa, media relations manager with ICAAC organizer the American Society for Microbiology, and the conference will be moving from New Orleans to a new place and new dates.

Jim said, “We really wanted to stay in New Orleans–they‘ll need the business–and it‘s so much easier to handle the logistics if you don‘t have to change locations. But we got the Washington, D.C., Convention Center very quickly–when you hear the dates, you‘ll understand why: December 16 to 19. It‘s similar to what happened right after 9/11/01, when ICAAC was in Chicago the week after the attacks. Luckily, the Chicago Convention Center could find dates that worked for us, but again they were the week before Christmas.”

“Now comes the fun–redoing the entire logistics for the convention center in three months,” Sliwa added. Deposits for New Orleans hotels will be refunded, and registration will automatically transfer to the new dates and site. Those who couldn‘t attend the rescheduled ICAAC could get a full refund of registration fees and hotel deposits as long as they notified the organizers before September 23. ICAAC‘s airline partner, United Airlines, also agreed to waive the $100 change fee for ICAAC attendees.

I have a feeling they’re going to be far from alone in having to move a meeting from NOLA and other affected areas. This is so horrible in so many ways.

Jena McGregor on the FC Now blog asks an interesting question: Where are the cruise ships in the Gulf Coast disaster? She says:

Maybe they’ve offered and I’ve missed it. Maybe it’s geographically or physically impossible to make it happen. But an offer from a cruise ship company to take the folks in the Superdome out into the Gulf of Mexico for a few days sounds like both a way to get thousands of people out of the misery of that area and — while I don’t mean this opportunistically in any way — a PR gold mine.

I’m guessing that it was a physical impossibility, what with a Category 5 storm in the area, to position ships nearby before or during the storm. And, as one commenter pointed out, they probably don’t have “spare” ships hanging around. Then again, if they can be brought in to house Superbowl overflow, now that the storm has cleared, they might be able to do something to help. But it would cost them a fortune to take the ships out of general circulation and feed everyone for free.

Then again, I hear the Astrodome is taking in refugees, and my guess is that now we’re just starting to see the waves of help arrive for those in hard-hit areas. I just hope that it lasts as long as people are going to need it—I’m hearing it could be anywhere from a month to a year before New Orleans is fully operational again, and the lack of info about Biloxi and other areas outside of NOLA is a worrisome.

Go read Patti Digh’s latest 37 Days. She so beautifully sums up what I’m feeling right now, and I suspect many of you are, too, about the horror show that used to be one of the more beautiful places in the U.S.: The Gulf Coast.

Then make a cash donation to the Red Cross. They need blood, too.

And the one I’m working on now is one of them—contacting meeting organizers to find out what they’re doing with their close-in events in the Gulf Coast. With so much death and destruction, with floodwaters still rising in New Orleans, it almost seems obscene to talk about cancellation insurance, force majeure clauses, and all that. But, since our magazine goes out next week, I’m doing it.

What I’m hearing so far is a big wait and see, though I heard through the grapevine that the Hilton Riverwalk is working to move all its September meetings to other places and/or dates. Most planners can’t even contact their headquarters hotel, while others say their local contacts are fine, but they’ve been evacuated as far away as Texas and Indiana and don’t know much more than the rest of us are getting from the usual news sources.

Contrary to a report in USA Today, which said “the American Society of Anesthesiologists expects to go ahead with its convention scheduled Oct. 22 to 26,” an ASA spokeswoman said that no decision had been made as of yet about its 16,000-attendee meeting because the situation was still “tenuous and unsettled” at its New Orleans locale.

The Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, organized by the American Society for Microbiology and expected to draw 12,000 attendees to the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, is one of the few close-in meetings that plans to make the call now about whether or not they’re going to cancel their Sept. 21-24 meeting. The PR guy said he’d call to let me know this afternoon, but the smart money has to be on a cancellation or move. I’ll let you know when I hear.

My sister, who had been really looking forward to attending the Association of Pet Dog Trainers 12th Annual Educational Conference and Expo in New Orleans (she runs a most excellent doggy daycare, the The DogPlayce), is making new plans on the assumption that the program is cancelled—which it probably will be, but there’s nothing on their site that mentions anything at this point.

And the one I’m working on now is one of them—contacting meeting organizers to find out what they’re doing with their close-in events in the Gulf Coast. With so much death and destruction, with floodwaters still rising in New Orleans, it almost seems obscene to talk about cancellation insurance, force majeure clauses, and all that. But, since our magazine goes out next week, I’m doing it.

What I’m hearing so far is a big wait and see, though I heard through the grapevine that the Hilton Riverwalk is working to move all its September meetings to other places and/or dates. Most planners can’t even contact their headquarters hotel, while others say their local contacts are fine, but they’ve been evacuated as far away as Texas and Indiana and don’t know much more than the rest of us are getting from the usual news sources.

Contrary to a report in USA Today, which said “the American Society of Anesthesiologists expects to go ahead with its convention scheduled Oct. 22 to 26,” an ASA spokeswoman said that no decision had been made as of yet about its 16,000-attendee meeting because the situation was still “tenuous and unsettled” at its New Orleans locale.

The Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, organized by the American Society for Microbiology and expected to draw 12,000 attendees to the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, is one of the few close-in meetings that plans to make the call now about whether or not they’re going to cancel their Sept. 21-24 meeting. The PR guy said he’d call to let me know this afternoon, but the smart money has to be on a cancellation or move. I’ll let you know when I hear.

My sister, who had been really looking forward to attending the Association of Pet Dog Trainers 12th Annual Educational Conference and Expo in New Orleans (she runs a most excellent doggy daycare, the The DogPlayce), is making new plans on the assumption that the program is cancelled—which it probably will be, but there’s nothing on their site that mentions anything at this point.

This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

J Telemed Telecare. 2005;11 Suppl 1:97-9. Videoconferences for rural physicians’ continuing health education. Klein D, Davis P, Hickey L, Division of Continuing Medical Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

The University of Alberta uses videoconferencing to link physicians in interactive continuing health education. We examined evaluations of 29 videoconferences for rural practitioners during the programme year September 2003-May 2004. The evaluation form, completed by participants following the presentation, used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. The average attendance for the videoconference sessions was 40 people. A total of 593 evaluations were collected (response rate 51%). The audience were very satisfied with the programme and felt that the sessions were relevant to their practice. The interactive discussion component was rated very highly. Most respondents stated that they would change their practice based on the information discussed. It is clear from our survey that videoconferencing is useful in overcoming the barriers of distance and that small physician numbers create a positive environment for adult learning.

PMID: 16124137 [PubMed - in process]

This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

J Telemed Telecare. 2005;11 Suppl 1:97-9. Videoconferences for rural physicians’ continuing health education. Klein D, Davis P, Hickey L, Division of Continuing Medical Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

The University of Alberta uses videoconferencing to link physicians in interactive continuing health education. We examined evaluations of 29 videoconferences for rural practitioners during the programme year September 2003-May 2004. The evaluation form, completed by participants following the presentation, used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. The average attendance for the videoconference sessions was 40 people. A total of 593 evaluations were collected (response rate 51%). The audience were very satisfied with the programme and felt that the sessions were relevant to their practice. The interactive discussion component was rated very highly. Most respondents stated that they would change their practice based on the information discussed. It is clear from our survey that videoconferencing is useful in overcoming the barriers of distance and that small physician numbers create a positive environment for adult learning.

PMID: 16124137 [PubMed - in process]

Phew, The Industry Veteran on the Health Care Blog has quite a few choice words about the recent Vioxx verdict. Here’s a small sampling, but go read the whole post (and the comments):

A second lesson of Vioxx is that many other parties must share some blame with Merck for furthering the promiscuous overuse of COX-2 inhibitors. Physicians and their professional societies now proclaim in high dudgeon that they were unduly influenced to overprescribe the COX‘s by pharmaceutical sales reps, bountiful sample packs and deceitfully published articles. In fact their current wailing amounts to an admission that clinicians and their organizations failed to fulfill their professional responsibilities. For years the societies and the state licensing boards allowed physicians to complete their continuing medical education requirements by attending company-sponsored events. The manufacturers have been only too happy to relieve physicians of the need for footing the bill to keep up with advances in their respective disciplines. Now the same physicians and their accomplices self righteously complain that they have been influenced by promotions. Do they honestly expect us to believe or empathize with their purported shock and outrage, expressed with all the sincerity and histrionic skill of WWF wrestlers?

Wow, and it just gets hotter from there.

Phew, The Industry Veteran on the Health Care Blog has quite a few choice words about the recent Vioxx verdict. Here’s a small sampling, but go read the whole post (and the comments):

A second lesson of Vioxx is that many other parties must share some blame with Merck for furthering the promiscuous overuse of COX-2 inhibitors. Physicians and their professional societies now proclaim in high dudgeon that they were unduly influenced to overprescribe the COX‘s by pharmaceutical sales reps, bountiful sample packs and deceitfully published articles. In fact their current wailing amounts to an admission that clinicians and their organizations failed to fulfill their professional responsibilities. For years the societies and the state licensing boards allowed physicians to complete their continuing medical education requirements by attending company-sponsored events. The manufacturers have been only too happy to relieve physicians of the need for footing the bill to keep up with advances in their respective disciplines. Now the same physicians and their accomplices self righteously complain that they have been influenced by promotions. Do they honestly expect us to believe or empathize with their purported shock and outrage, expressed with all the sincerity and histrionic skill of WWF wrestlers?

Wow, and it just gets hotter from there.