This year, for the first time ever, ACEP assembled an official social media all-star team for the sole purpose of helping people all over the world keep up with the very latest from the 2014 Scientific Assembly in Chicago. The results are in: not only was ACEP14 a record breaking year for in-person attendees, with more than 6,500 registrants, we also shattered all of our previous online metrics.

For the most part, my fellow #ACEP14 social media team members took to Twitter. This year, around 2,400 people tweeted with the hashtag #ACEP14 in the month surrounding the conference, up from 1,500 last year, and approximately 325 in 2012. There were more than 18,000 tweets from or about #ACEP14, up from 12,000 last year and 1,700 in 2012—which seems almost cute in retrospect. It’s clear that the way we attend conferences is changing before our very eyes.

Also, for the first time we added a podcast to the social media mix. My FOAMcast (@FOAMpodcast) co-host Lauren Westafer, DO (@LWestafer), and I recorded (and edited—whew!) four daily roundups on location from Chicago, in which we covered highlights from the day’s top sessions and announcements, ranging from top pearls, controversies, and the welcome five new additions to ACEP’s Choosing Wisely list. Our 10 minute episodes proved to be quite popular, with thousands of daily downloads. So, we’ll be back next year! Meanwhile, like our regular FOAMcast episodes, they are available for free on iTunes and on our blog, www.foamcast.org.

Here some top tweets from #ACEP14. On Monday, I cruised some of the biggest and most packed sessions. Costa Rican emergency physician, Manrique Umana, MD (@UmanaMD), was at the Monday cardiology update talk by Corey Slovis, MD, FACEP, and tweeted “Slovis: 10-30% of non-STEMI’s have a fresh clot. ‘Hypothermia+cathlab’ stat post-arrest is the way to go!”

Bob Stuntz, MD, FACEP (@BobStuntz), kept up with a talk by Scott Weingart, MD, FACEP (@emcrit), titled “Save the Blade!” on avoiding intubation. Among his best: “Weingart: Lower esophageal sphincter opens at 22-23cm H2O, so keep NIV [non-invasive ventilation] pressures 15-20.”

Since Ebola is all over the news, I would be remiss not to mention the lecture by David Pigott, MD, FACEP, titled “Inside the Hot Zone: Highly Infectious Pathogens in the ED.” Official #ACEP14 social media team member Allen Roberts, MD, FACEP (@GruntDoc), tweeted that when treating Ebola, expect “5-10 liters of GI losses [per day] with lyte disturbance.” He also tweeted about the Food and Drug Administration’s support of compassionate use for unapproved therapies.