April 22, 2022
It’s April and Spring is finally here. In Virginia, the rich green grass and fresh leaves provide the background for an abundance of yellow daffodils, multiple colors of tulips, and a splash of pink azaleas, framed by the blossoms of the dogwoods, redbuds and fruit trees. April is also another month that many religious holidays intersect and are celebrated simultaneously. This is the time to re-energize and refresh your mind.
Utilize that newfound vigor to finish submitting your abstracts to NACCT 2022. For those of you who have not started yet, this is your wake-up call. You know who you are. I admit, one time I submitted an abstract at 11:59 PM the day of the deadline.
We will be meeting in-person in San Francisco this September. The City by the Bay (queue Journey song, “Lights”) seems like the perfect place to reconnect after two years of a digital faces, frozen screens, muted speakers and unpredictable internet crashes. Registration will be opening in less than a month on May 17th and the full program will be available in June.
The strength of the AACT is in the talents of our membership. We want and need your ideas. Submitting to NACCT is just one way to share them. We will be inviting members interested in the research and education committees to join us this summer. If you want to find a mentor or be a mentor contact us at admin@clintox.org or use the app. This new program has helped bring together new graduates and seasoned veterans, which is helpful to both participants. We are also looking to expand our AACT student chapters at your local academic institution. This is a multi-disciplinary group of pharmacy and medical students who could have the pleasure of learning clinical toxicology from you.
Also, on the horizon is our brand-new upside-down journal club, which we call the Toxismo Society. The emphasis will be more on the exchange of our ideas, rather than presenting the article. The value in reading, analyzing and deliberating our literature is not having someone feed you the article, but active participation in the digestion of the article. The Toxismo Society webinar will be May 17 at 1:00 PM. Mark it on your calendars. The article for discussion will be sent out soon for you to pre-read. I know you are laughing right now. Don’t worry, we have a core group of people who will be leading the discussion, so if you haven’t read the article we will still have a lively debate.
Respectfully,
Kirk Cumpston, DO
President, AACT