ACAIM is proud to celebrate a successful 3rd Annual Congress of Academic International Medicine, held in Brooklyn, NY at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. This year’s Congress more than doubled the number of attendees and hosted a number of speakers from academic institutions across the country, as well as from several prominent organizations, including USAID, CDC, and ABEM, to name a few.

Pre-conference activities included the renowned Cochrane Diagnostic Test Accuracy Review Course, taught by invited international Cochrane instructors and the ACAIM Task Force. A multidisciplinary group of attendees worked collaboratively to create metrics for standardization of international medical programs.

Dr. Riley kicked off the weekend with a warm welcome to invited speakers and guests, highlighting the importance of international medicine within academic institutions and particularly at the host of this year’s Congress, SUNY Downstate Medical Center. An excellent keynote address then followed, by Dr. Craig Spencer, Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at Columbia University. Dr. Spencer eloquently discussed the unique challenges of incorporating evidence-based practices into international medicine and posed several creative solutions to maintain an ethical, objective, and organized approach to this line of work. Dr. Diane Gorgas presented a stimulating Past President’s Lecture, offering guidelines to garner academic institution support for international medical programs.

Many other engaging presentations and discussions filled the next two days. The Women in International Medicine session examined the landscape for women leaders in academic international medicine, tackling subjects ranging from professional advancement, to sexual harassment, to gender equality advocacy. An experienced panel of speakers stimulated a thoughtful discussion around ethics in international medical programs, which initiated future planning for a group to explore development of standards and competencies to guide improved practices.

A lively discussion emerged during the Global Health Security session, a topic that increasingly dominates our ever more intersecting world, and which has clearly impacted the work of both the speakers and participants present. The Injury Prevention session addressed the importance of intervention programs for victims of violence, a topic increasingly relevant to the practice of international medicine.

Invited Emergency Management experts engaged participants to discuss the role of international aid in times of crisis and how these responses can be approached from an evidence-based perspective. Attendees also enjoyed the Low Fidelity Simulation session, which presented the use of low-technology educational aids, easily reproducible in low-resource settings; the speakers even included a build-your-own segment so that participants could take away a tangible toolkit.

The 3rd Annual Congress saw a wealth of fascinating and engaging discussions, much of which surrounded the 40+ abstracts that were presented and judged throughout the weekend. Those individuals with the best abstracts received free registration to AIM 2019! ACAIM looks forward to continuing its growth, and invites academics from all specialties to join this unique collaborative platform in international medicine.