What’s the Value of the Expo?

November 5th, 2012

What’s the Value of the Expo?

Reva Balakrishnan, MD, MPH

Several Cardiology Fellows who are attending AHA.12 in LA this week are blogging together for CardioExchange. The Fellows include Tariq Ahmad, Reva Balakrishnan, Megan Coylewright, Eiman Jahangir, Amit Shah, and John Ryan (moderator). Read the previous post here. Find the next one here. For related CardioExchange content, go to our AHA 2012 Headquarters page.

Regulations have limited the amount of “freebies” that companies can give fellows, and our training starting in medical school has discouraged interaction with industry. Sometimes, though, wandering into the colorful room full of distractions from the main event can be unavoidable .

Therefore, friends and I entered the Expo room at AHA.12 with a discerning eye, gaining little educational value but walking away with some laughs instead. One of my cofellows tested her chest compression skills (and found out — way too fast!). Amusingly, some booths were not successful in their marketing strategy (see picture). Even at the fellow level, I’d hope you wouldn’t need a special stethoscope to hear S1 and S2!

So, similar to the previous year, I found little value in the Expo floor except for some laughs. Do you gain any value from the booths?

photo credit: Kelly Axsom

CardioExchange Archive

CardioExchange, an NEJM practice community for medical professionals dedicated to improving cardiac patient care, was active from 2009 to 2015. CardioExchange fostered discussion between clinicians from across the globe.

November 5th, 2012