The 2010 Leadership and Advocacy Conference was a great success this year, with our largest-ever attendance of more than 470 emergency physicians attending the 3-day conference and hundreds of members visiting Capitol Hill.

During 294 meetings with legislators and/or their health care staff, almost 380 physicians discussed the impact of the recently enacted health care reform legislation on emergency patients, implementation of the new law, the unstable Medicare physician payment system, and many invited their legislators to visit their emergency departments when back home.

In conference sessions, attendees heard about leadership lessons learned from ACEP member Melissa L. Givens, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S Army who worked the mass casualty incident at Ft. Hood; and from Col. Thomas A. Kolditz, head of the department of behavioral sciences and leadership at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

There was also incisive perspective on the new health care reform law and its implications from Len Nichols, the director of health policy at the New America Foundation. Dr. J. James ­Rohack, the president of the American Medical Association, gave the audience an alternative view.

During the conference, ACEP also honored several media members with its Journalism Awards of Excellence. These awards are given to print and electronic media outlets that did an outstanding job of conveying the issues affecting emergency physicians and their patients.

In addition, eight members of Congress were presented with the 2010 ACEP Congressional Leadership Award:

• Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD)
• Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
• Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
• Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
• Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
• Representative Mike Burgess (R-TX)
• Representative Gene Green (D-TX)
• Representative Jim Matheson (D-UT)

Additionally, the NEMPAC annual campaign set a new record of nearly $50,000, including a $30,000 contribution from Florida Emergency Physicians, an effort coordinated by Dr. Vidor Friedman, a partner in the group, who encouraged his colleagues to contribute at the “Give-a-Shift” ($1,000) level.