On October 19th, thousands of infectious disease experts, including doctors, researchers and medical students, will fill the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta for Infectious Disease Week.
The annual conference, which runs until October 22, comes at a difficult time for the medical and scientific communities. Vaccine hesitancy continues to grow, subsidy funding dwindles, and the government publishes false claims about Tylenol’s risks.
To understand how infectious disease leaders in research and clinical care are navigating these times, Business Insider goes on the ground to talk about public health strategy, medical innovation, and the future of careers in the field.
This year’s ID Week will focus on themes such as artificial intelligence in medicine and biological preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks, Yohei Doi, Ph.D., ID Week chair and representative of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told Business Insider.
“We have some presenters who are public health experts, and I look forward to hearing their insights. I think public health has always been a theme, and I think it will be a big part of this year,” Doi said ahead of the conference.
What to expect during ID Week
ID Week brings together six professional organizations with different specialties: Infectious Diseases Society of America, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Society of HIV Medicine, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and Society of Infectious Disease Pharmacists.
“Be prepared for a geeky crowd,” Dr. Sophie Katz, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and moderator of the ID Week workshop, told Business Insider.
“It’s hard to choose what to do because there are so many interesting talks that I want to attend at once,” Katz said. “I enjoy being in an environment with all these people and learning all about the cutting edge of ID science.”
At a pre-event media briefing, some researchers teased upcoming ID Week presentations highlighting research findings on topics such as RSV and the benefits of the shingles vaccine.
Doi said the majority of participants are doctors, with a small but growing number of pharmacists, nurses, physician assistants and others.
The conference will feature more than 250 events over four days and speakers on topics such as:
Emerging Infectious Diseases AI in Antimicrobial Control Medicine Pediatric Bacterial Infection Prescription Research and Clinical Best Practices Sustainability and Equity in Infectious Disease Treatment
The event is also a useful networking opportunity, especially for medical students, Doi said. For example, the ID Week BugCrawl program offers selected networking opportunities and lectures to students and residents. Also located within the Georgia World Congress Center is the NextGen ID Lounge, a space where medical students, residents, and fellows can interact and hear career-oriented talks from experienced infectious disease experts.
“This is probably their first time attending a big conference, and since the venue is big, we have sessions with them where they walk around the conference,” Doi said. “And they can meet some of the most prominent people in the field and just sit and talk about their lives, careers, and research.”
Additionally, there will be receptions, meet-and-greets, and group dinners for various professional organizations, including IDSA and PIDS.
Infectious Disease Conference at the Mecca of U.S. Public Health
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also located in Atlanta, has made the city “the public health mecca of the United States,” Doi told Business Insider.
He added that ID Week will feature insights from former CDC experts and current CDC staff, but that content is subject to change.
“Obviously, things are changing with the government shutdown, so we have to plan for that, but we want to utilize our location as much as possible this time as well,” Doi said.
