The ASHT 37th Annual Meeting is being held September 18-20, 2014 at the Hynes Convention Center and Boston Marriott Hotel Copley Place in beautiful Boston, Mass. Your Annual Meeting Committee has been diligently reviewing instructional courses and abstracts, inviting speakers and panelists and working through all the details to make this year’s meeting rich in both education and experience!
The theme of this year’s meeting is “Tradition Meets Tomorrow,” and we are thrilled to share the highlights of the program with you! Eight Pre-Conference Institutes are being offered on Wednesday, September 17, ranging from hands-on skills workshops to maximizing reimbursement in our current healthcare climate. Starting Thursday, the program will begin each morning with two-hour instructional courses and end each day with a variety of one-hour courses, including the entire range of hand therapy practice from diagnosis and intervention to reimbursement and evidence.
Educational choices will be paired with thought-provoking plenary sessions throughout the meeting. Our opening ceremony Thursday will include a performance by Adrian Anantawan, an esteemed violinist who has been highly involved in the adaptation of violins for children with congenital limb differences. Thursday’s main sessions also include the address by our ASHT President, Maureen Hardy, two scientific sessions and an “Ask the Experts Panel” focusing on current trends in Dupuytren’s and relative motion.
We strongly encourage your participation in the Friday morning emerging issues session and business meeting, which will provide opportunities for you to contribute in identifying professional issues and understanding the current priorities of our society. Friday afternoon has been organized as an opportunity for combined educational and scientific sessions with the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and the presidential guest lecture is certain to be a highlight of the meeting. Dr. Paul Farmer is a physician and anthropologist who co-founded Partners in Health and who has fundamentally impacted the provision of public health for the poor in settings of privation, including Haiti and Rwanda.
Saturday’s program begins with the ASHT Presidential Invited Speaker, Dr. Kathleen Kuchenbecker from the University of Pennsylvania who will share her fascinating research in haptics and the technology of touch. The morning session will continue with the incoming presidential address by Jane Fedorczyk and a legislative panel including representation from both AOTA and APTA. Our afternoon session will begin with the American Association for Hand Surgery (AAHS) Invited Speaker and President-Elect Dr. Michael Neumeister, followed by the International Invited Lecture by Sarah Ewald, President of the International Federation of the Societies of Hand Therapy (IFSHT). We will end our main sessions with an international panel entitled “Sacred Cows Must Go: Now & How” and include thought-provoking talks on tendon gliding and tendon repair, early motion for fractures and mallet finger mobilization.
Regist now for the 37th Annual Meeting in Boston
Please join us for a program that considers how our past will inform our future: from traditional concepts to new ideas, evidence-based practice to clinical application, old friends to new acquaintances. On behalf of the ASHT Annual Meeting Committee, we look forward to seeing you in Boston!
Rebecca von der Heyde, PhD, OTR/L, CHT
Robin Miller, OTR/L, CHT
Maureen Hardy, MS, PT, CHT
Nora Barrett, MS, OTR/L, CHT
Lynn Festa, OTR, CHT
Stacy Hite, PT, DPT, MS, CHT
Linda Klein, OTR, CHT