Lessons from IAMRA: Real connection at a virtual conference
Lois Margaret Nora, MD, JD, MBA
As someone who has long been interested in professional medical regulation, I knew I was sure to encounter many like-minded professionals and compelling topics at the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities’ 2021 meeting. What I did not know was that the meeting’s virtual format would be so deftly managed to facilitate that learning and connection.
During the meeting, Sheila De La Cruz and I presented work that we have done with Carol Clothier and Terry Stratton over the past several years. While the stories of medicine’s history are enlightening, they often leave out the influence, impact, and experiences of women. During my leadership at the American Board of Medical Specialties, I realized that is certainly the case in our histories of medical professional regulation. Attempting to fill that gap, we traveled to the archives of the Federation of State Medical Boards offices in Texas and began an examination of the documents housed there.
We examined all the photographic imagery in about 100 years’ worth of FSMB journals and newsletters, and our study yielded some interesting observations that we discussed at the IAMRA meeting and have submitted for publication as part of an academic paper. I’ll be sure to share those results with you if/when they are published.
Judged on substance alone, the IAMRA meeting was informative and engaging. However, it is the thoughtful and professional manner in which the meeting was executed that I found especially noteworthy.
The IAMRA audience is – as the name suggests – a truly international audience. If you’ve attended international conferences yourself, you know that while the attendees may come from around the world, conference schedules force many of them to upend their normal sleep schedules and adapt to a single (often US-aligned) time zone.
Conversely, IAMRA meeting organizers scheduled their three-day conference with three start times, each one roughly aligned with US, European, or Australian time zones. As a result, people from around the globe had at least one day where the plenary sessions and other activities matched their usual workday schedule. An interesting example of organizational cultural competence.
The organizers also used a hybrid approach to presentations that yielded meaningful opportunities to connect and share information. Speakers taped their talks in advance (following firmly held time guidelines). After presentations were broadcast to the meeting, IAMRA expert moderators hosted a live discussion among the speakers and the audience. While this approach is not that unusual, the IAMRA moderators did it particularly well, and the resulting discussions were interesting and enlightening.
My compliments and congratulations to Roxanne Huff and her colleagues on the IAMRA team. We have all done enough Zoom meetings to feel both proficient and all too familiar with “Zoom fatigue,” yet it’s clear large conferences continue to pose challenges in our heavily virtual environment. All the more reason to celebrate such a successful event!
