Highlights from the 2019 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine Meeting

Guest post by Peggy Stager, with assistance from Nicola Gray & Jenna Baumgartner

In March, adolescent healthcare providers from around the world gathered in beautiful Washington, D.C., for the annual Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine Meeting.  This year’s meeting, “Psychological Well-being: International Transcultural Perspectives,” was one of the largest attended with 1,055 attendees of whom one third were trainees. International representation was excellent with 115 attendees from 29 different countries.

The 4-day SAHM meeting was packed with an agenda that appealed to a variety of professionals and backgrounds. There were five educational tracks which ran simultaneously: Research, Training/Education, Public Health/Advocacy, Clinical Advances, and Core Clinical Topics. Over 400 presenters provided information for lectures, workshops, and institutes, with 52 presenters being from outside the United States. There were “Hot Topics”, platform research presentations, committee meetings and special interest groups. Plenary sessions were outstanding and well received. Ken Ginsburg, MD, and Merrian Brooks, DO of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia spoke on, “The Protective Power of Relationships”; Lynne Jones, PhD of Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, spoke on “Psychological Well-Being in Conflict, Disaster, and Flight”; and Nilda Flores-Gonzalez, PhD, of Arizona State University, spoke on “Immigrant Youth Experiences.”

This year marked the first joint meeting for the IAAH and SAHM’s International Chapter. IAAH President Susan Sawyer opened the meeting with a warm welcome and went on to discuss IAAH committees, members, and encouraged people to join an IAAH committee. Special attention was made to highlight the periodicity of the World Congresses would be moving from a four-year cycle to a three-year cycle, with the next congress being held in 2020. The Young Professionals Network (YPN), chaired by Jason Nagata, Sophie Remoué Gonzales, and Natalie Yap, discussed the purpose of the network and encouraged people to join. Special encouragement was given for young professionals from South America/Latin America to submit applications to serve as YPN officers, as that is the only region that isn’t currently represented.

In closing, a review of the SAHM meeting would not be complete without highlighting the camaraderie and warm collegiality among adolescent health friends around the world. The SAHM meeting provides a wonderful opportunity to meet with international colleagues and share our successes and challenges, and collaborate on research, clinical services, and robust programming for teens worldwide.