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ORGANIZATION NEWS-ACRM

1998 ACRM Annual Meeting Emphasized Research

The 75th Annual Meeting of the Ameri- can Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, held November S-10, 1998, at The Madi- son Hotel in Seattle, WA, lived up to the ACRM Board of Governors’ 1997 promise for an event that would emphasize evi- dence-based rehabilitation and important ongoing developments in rehabilitation re- search. The event, titled “Evidence-Based Rehabilitation: Building Bridges Between Payers, Providers, and Consumers,” was jointly sponsored by ACRM and the Uni- versity of Washington School of Medicine, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Continuing Medical Education.

The keynote address, “Science Inform- ing Program and Policy in Rehabilitation: The IOM Blueprint,” was given by Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD, professor of health policy and management and senior associate dean for academic affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD. The presentation discussed the general findings and research priorities contained in the report of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to the US Congress, Enabling America, as well as the report’s potential impact on the field of rehabilitation.

Plenary sessions all focused on the topic of “Building Trustworthy Bridges with Evidence-Based Rehabilitation.” The first plenary, presented by Theodore M. Cole, MD, ACRM president and professor emeri- tus of physical medicine and rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Gerben DeJong, PhD, director of the Na- tional Rehabilitation Hospital Research Center, Washington, DC, and John Banja, PhD, associate professor of rehabilitation medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, explored the ques- tion, “Is the Nature of the Evidence for Evidence-Based Rehabilitation Really Self- Evident?”

The initial plenary session objectives included identifying the issues in and de- scribing the importance of the clinical practice of an evidence-based rehabilita- tion approach. Presenters expanded the discussion to include three varying evi- dence-based perspectives-rehabilitation science, marketplace, and mom-as they relate to rehabilitation, then offered cases to compare the usefulness of these ap- proaches in building bridges between pay- ers, providers, and consumers of rehabilita- tion services.

The second plenary subtopic, “Strate- gies for Managing Our Future as Rehabili- tationists,” was given by Jean Welsh, EdD, an independent consultant with Insight Partners, Boston, MA. The session ad- dressed expansive objectives, including defining the principal drivers of rehabilita- tion change, meeting and overcoming the challenges of cost compression and treat- ment redesign, and identifying ways to use information technology to add value to rehabilitation care quality and cost. Dr. Welsh discussed important pending changes in the economic demands and regulatory environment of postacute care and offered practical suggestions on successful and cost-effective rehabilitation service deliv- ery in a hypercompetitive market.

The final plenary subtopic, “The Role of Stakeholder Groups in Creating an Evi- dence-Based Culture,” was presented by Gerben DeJong and moderated by Randall Evans, PhD ABPP, president and CEO of Learning Services Corporation, Durham, NC. The presentation pointed out the roles of various stakeholder groups (eg, clini- cians, administrators, consumers, payers, researchers, and policymakers) in creating an evidence-based culture, the rules that might govern it, and the potential for such a culture to restore professional value to today’s marketplace. Participants identi- fied ways for ACRM to work with other stakeholders and provide leadership in cre- ating such a culture.

The combination opening reception/ exhibits/first poster session was comple- mented with beverages and hors d’oeuvres, and this session offered attendees an oppor- tunity to network with representatives from rehabilitation-related facilities and compa- nies to learn about innovative and nontradi- tional clinical practice or programming. Of the approximately 150 abstracts received For this year’s conference, 27 were ac- zepted as paper presentations and approxi- mately 105 as poster presentations.

One of the most exciting elements of the meeting was a dinner/dance to celebrate ACRM’s 75th anniversary, held in the hotel’s splendid Courtyard Ballroom. A grand celebration of ACRM’s long and distinguished history was presented, high- lighting the organization’s leaders, contri- outions, and achievements-as well as a iook forward to ACRM’s plans for the new millennium. A special historical 75th anni- versary poster was unveiled; the poster is available for viewing on the ACRM Web site, which is www.acrm.org.

ACRM President Theodore M. Cole

told attendees, “I hope you agree that the content of the meeting creatively and expe- ditiously advanced evidence-based rehabili- tation and highlighted the bridges we have built for rehabilitation research payers, providers, and consumers. We fulfilled our promise to put research up front at the convention during this, our 75th anniver- sary year.”

ACRM Call for Abstracts- 1999 76th Annual Meeting

The American Congress of Rehabilita- tion Medicine invites abstract submissions for its 1999 annual conference, “Rehabili- tation: Creating the State of the Art,” to be held October 14-17, 1999, at the Radisson Twin Towers, Orlando, FL. ACRM’s focus for the meeting is to create a dynamic, innovative, evidence-based educational conference for generators, funders, and users of rehabilitation research. Abstracts are requested for Courses, Breakfast Ses- sions, Scientific Papers, Scientific Posters, and, new for 1999, Research Work Ses- sions. ACRM is particularly interested in submissions that (1) show how current evidence-based research can effectively guide clinical practice,(2) evaluate the ex- tent to which currently available evidence can guide clinical practice and identify remaining clinical questions where addi- tional research data are needed, and (3) discuss a research agenda needed to guide clinical practice where little definitive re- search exists.

Abstracts are invited in the following categories:

Courses: Courses are 1.5 or 3 hours in length and are presented by people with expertise in the topic area. There is a mandatory time of 20 minutes or more for questions and discussion, although more time can be allotted if desired. Desired course submissions are those that (1) show how current evidence-based research can effectively guide clinical practice, (2) evalu- ate the extent to which currently available evidence can guide clinical practice and identify remaining clinical questions where additional research data are needed, and (3) discuss a research agenda needed to guide clinical practice where little defini- tive research exists. Each course submis- sion must describe the instructional method to be used, the content and format of the course and the rationale why such a method is the best way to present the material. The number of course presenters can vary from

Arch Phys Med Rehabil Vol 79, December 1998