Today was the final day of ACPM 2009, which was a bit sad. It was fun hanging out with medical students and doctors who have the same feelings on medical careers as I do (even if they are all bleeding-heart liberals who think that Obama is the savior of the known universe). Anyway, here's a brief run-down of the day (and I'll try to explain acronyms and abbreviations better):
1) One last breakfast with the MSS (Medical Student Section)
2) Listening to the explanation of Healthy Americans 2020, which is a repackaging of Healthy Americans 2010. Nothing's really changed. Pretty boring session.
3) Argued with some administrators/test-writers of the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exam; the Board exams) about public health and preventive medicine questions in the multiple-choice and standardized-patient portions of the exam. LTC (Lieutenant Colonel) Cavicchia (one of the OSU alums in preventive medicine) was taking my side, so I guess I wasn't too far off.
4) Lunch (not that exciting)
5) Great careers in preventive medicine-public sector session. This is where the CDC, Army docs, and state/county public health directors talked about their careers. Some of them were pretty impressive. CPT (Captain) Ahluwalia and I were essentially planning out the timelines of our careers (when he would take over from the current Army director at the Global Emerging Infections System and when I would take over from him, etc). I hope it works out that way!
6) Preventive Medicine challenges in Iraq and Afghanistan session. Needless to say, this one was geared toward the Uniformed Services Academy of Preventive Medicine (of which I am the lowest ranked member!)
7) Wrote a speech at the last minute for the awards banquet, and then gave it in front of all these impressive preventive medicine physicians, including my future residency director. Well, they said I did a good job, so I guess that's all that matters. And no, I didn't win an award, I was giving them--I was announcing the winners of the Future Leaders in Preventive Medicine grant, which is what paid for the other medical students to come (I was paid for by being a med student section officer).
Anyway, tomorrow morning it's off to the airport to try to get on an earlier flight on standby. Either way, I'll be home tomorrow.
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