Russell Libby, MD, FAAP, gets ready for the AAP National Conference & Exhibition

Transcript:

My name is Russell Libby. I'm a pediatrician who has had a practice in Northern Virginia for over 40 years. And I've been to the NCTE for the AAP probably 15 times over the course of years, many of those times have been for specific reasons, participating in sections, going for educational opportunities, or it was convenient or a nice place that I wanted to go to. B

But it's a very nourishing and worthwhile experience. For me, I learned a lot: probably the most important thing for me is networking. You work through the year with different people, you have experiences, through programs or other endeavors. You get to work with people directly or by email, by phone or whatever. But here you finally get to spend some time and to have direct interaction: it’s really a positive thing. You get to meet leadership, participate in activities that bring people together, and get them to know each other a little bit so that it is a real good networking opportunity. Probably the most remarkable part is the exhibits. So there's a huge exhibit room warehouse, literally, of exhibitors, and they come from every walk of life, whether it's a major manufacturer of a formula, or antibiotic, vaccines, whatever, to new technology, consumer goods, condition specific advocates, you'll see people there, from all kinds of backgrounds with all kinds of resources, educational materials, and opportunities to learn about what is new in the marketplace, what is new that might help you and your practice great activities around education. And certainly, you have an incredible list of remarkably talented educators, and researchers and just teachers who can share their experiences through all kinds of lectures and interactive and meeting opportunities.

Certainly, one of the more incredible parts is that now you get all this online, the educational support with slide decks and things of that nature. So you don't even have to go to all of these lectures to actually get the gist and the pearls: you just pick out the areas that you like. And for me, it's usually developmental and behavioral pediatrics, looking at psychopharmacology and different screening methods or possibly practice management and the things that we do relative to our EHRs and business operations or possibly dermatology, all kinds of interesting areas. And certainly, you can survey through them, pick your favorites, go to some of those if you have the opportunity, but if you don't, you can always review those slides.

Lastly, they're all great events. They're receptions, luncheons, and social events that give you the opportunity to relax and get to know some of your colleagues in a more collegial and comfortable environment. I am going to meet with the section on homecare this year because I'm working with the family partnership network and creating an endowment for them. I go to the Administration on Practice Management program and then their luncheon where they give out an award, one of which I was fortunate recipient of several years ago. And it's just a real special opportunity that you just will never get elsewhere, that is so specialty-specific and just a great experience to enjoy.