A look back at SHM2025 Converge national meeting

Written by: Mary Ann Kirkconnell Hall, MPH, Senior Medical Writer for the Division of Hospital Medicine

---

Dozens of Emory hospitalists and administrative staff attended the Society of Hospital Medicine’s (SHM) 2025 Converge national meeting April 23-25 in Las Vegas, Nevada. We had much to celebrate! Two Division of Hospital Medicine faculty, Dr. Joanna Bonsall, MD, PhD and Dr. Dustin Smith, MD gave the annual Update in Hospital Medicine keynote—but not before each of them won one of SHM’s highest national awards. Dr. Bonsall won the Clinical Leadership for Physicians award, and Dr. Smith won the Excellence in Teaching award.

Photo credits: Manpreet Malik, MD (top and middle) and Mohamad Moussa, MD (lower).

Throughout the conference, EDHM faculty demonstrated their clinical and research acumen, giving a number of talks and leading workshops (and the Med-Ed Teaching Competition).

• Joanna Bonsall, MD, PhD; Dustin Smith, MD: Put Your Money Down and Make Your Next Career Move: When and How to Redefine Your Niche; Keynote: Update in Hospital Medicine
• Dan Dressler, MD: My Bad! (Please Don’t) Just Sue Me! – Common reasons why hospital medicine gets sued and how to mitigate risk
• Annie Massart, MD: Winning Big in MedEd: Best Practices for Optimizing Bedside Rounds for Patients and Learners; The Second Annual MED-TED Competition!; Don’t Gamble with Your Words: Primary Palliative Care Tips to Improve Your Odds of Effective Communication with Seriously Ill Patients
• Jessica Nave, MD: Peering Into a Crystal Ball: Leveraging EMR tools to Predict Clinical Deterioration and How to Intervene
• John Vasquez, MD: Interhospital Transfers Beyond the Basics: Integrated Command Centers, Tackling Capacity Challenges, and Waitlists

Dr. Mohamad Moussa, MD, was recognized as the president of the Gold Excellence-awarded Atlanta SHM Chapter.

Photo credits: Top, Yoo Mee Shin, MD; middle and lower, Ketino Kobaidze, MD.

• Caption: (Top) EDHM hospitalists catch a Cirque de Soliel show after the business day is done. (Middle) Dr. Rashida La Barrie, MD, and EDHM Senior Medical Writer Mary Ann Kirkconnell Hall, MPH grab a laugh between presentations. Dr. Patricia Hwang, MD, part of the EDHM research group that Dr. La Barrie leads, presented their jointly co-written poster, “Differences in perceived barriers to hospital discharge within and outside the control of the hospitalist.” (Lower) Ketino Kobaidze (third from left) joins EDHM’s very own Curbsiders (left to right), Drs. Monee Amin, MD; Caroline Coleman, MD; and Meredith Trubitt, MD.

Thirty EDHM teams presented posters. Some were clinical vignettes—including the abstract finalist team of Jesse D. Gruber, MD , Nikita Deng, MD, Brandon Davis, Shruti Erramilli, MD and Yoo Mee Shin, MD, whose clinical vignette, “Beltline bite: a case of West Nile virus in the heart of Atlanta,” was selected as one of the top 40 from hundreds of entrants. Other EDHM poster presentation teams included those listed below; all abstracts can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1002/jhm.70025.

• Ajala K, Hall MAK. Pathways Program: fostering scholarship and professional networks among medical students from historically underrepresented groups in medicine via conference support & training.
• Alam R, Gessessew, Patel M, Gallagher M. A case of profound fatigue in a patient with lung adenocarcinoma on chemotherapy.
• Bathina P, Williams T, Tadigiri M, Hanna J, Hall MAK, Watkins S. Malnutrition in hospitalized adults: determining the prevalence of vitamin C deficiency.
• Chandora A, Agbediaejughemre U, Campbell B, Muckley B. Robbing the heart and brain: a case of coronary subclavian steal syndrome.
• Chen S, Thota S. Fever that doesn’t go away.
• Clarke K, Koneru V, Ammons KK. Anti-transcriptional intermediary factor (TIF) 1 gamma antibody-positive dermatomyositis and malignancy risk.
• Clarke K, Naidu S. Thyroid emergency.
• Davis B, Muckley B, White R. Pituitary pandemonium: a case of autoimmune hypophysitis.
• Fatima S, Wills T, Bogard S, Park JM, Mather R, John N, Hall MAK, Patterson B, White T, Watkins S. Enhancing healthcare efficiency: strategies to identify and overcome discharge barriers to optimize the observed over expected (O/E) ratio for length of stay (LOS)
• Gorti H. Enhancing feedback for medical trainees using personalized R2C2 model.
• Gorti H. The secret recipe for refractory metabolic acidosis: a dash of keto, a spoonful of surprises.
• Guevara-Bermudez L, Hall MAK, Memon A. Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, the brainstem, and CKD: a clinical vignette and call for rapid diagnosis with brain magnetic resonance imaging.
• Ho J, Wills T, Umpierrez AP. Dyspnea and leg swelling – a rare cause for a common problem: left atrial myxoma leading to congestive heart failure.
• Hwang PR*†, La Barrie R†, Sulieman M, Shah H, Hall MAK, Cricklow V, Osakwe-Ozumba H, Hanna J (†co-first authors).  Differences in perceived barriers to hospital discharge within and outside the control of the hospitalist.
• Jung SG, Shin YM, Wills T, Turbow S, Parker R, Hall MAK. Assessing hospitalist perceptions of the impact of nearby hospital closures on providers and patients.
• Kobaidze K, Manaloto J. Into the woods.
• Licitra G, Britt W, Krokow D, Junaidi B. Gathering granules of evidence for a diagnosis.
• Maleque N, Ossi J, Promer G, Diaz G, Huynh Hm Ross T, Liu J. Parasites amongst us: a case of babesiosis with high grade parasitemia and Lyme coinfection.
• Massart A, Kapuria M, Hall MAK. Learning to be better ward teachers: a novel innovation to enhance hospitalists’ educator skills.
• McIntosh BA, Wilber E. Glaring malaria: considerations for identifying and treating relapsed malaria.
• Monroe JM, Heiderscheit E, Krakow D, Junaidi B. Pulmonary cavities beyond tuberculosis: lessons from a complex case.
• Pangulur P, Kobaidze K, Shirey T, Smith Jr W, Shin YM, Goins A, Kent L, Heller M. Abstract 248: Geographic based cohorting and discharge metrics.
• Patidar V, Cruser B. Revenge of the space heater.
• Pope T, Mahendraraj K, Coleman C. Design of a novel arrhythmia and cardiac arrest simulation curriculum.
• Reed AC, Devlin C, Pressman A, Dressler D. Cementing the diagnosis in a patient with shortness of breath.
• Saklawi Y, Castro E. Under the nose: a case of epistaxis and pseudo-thrombotic microangiopathy.
• Tadigiri M, Williams T, Watkins S, Hanna J, Hall MAK, Bathina P. Malnutrition in hospitalized patients: determining the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency
• Tadigiri M. Williams T, Hanna J, Hall MAK, Watkins S, Bathina P. Malnutrition in hospitalized patients: determining the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency
• Vitek L, Lazris R, Udine M, Debakey M, Pittman JR. Ascites as a presentation of lupus
• White R. When a mechanical fall isn’t so mechanical: a case of necrotizing myositis.
• Wills T, Hall MAK, Kapuria M, Malik M, Moussa M, Sankar D, Akwe J, Massart A. Unintentional ingestion of psychoactive cannabis products among adults: scoping review.

The Division is already looking forward to the 2026 meeting, which will take place in Nashville, TN under the leadership of EDHM’s own Assistant Course Director, Dr. Manpreet Malik, MD.