Grab a Snack: It’s Brown Bag Time!

Whether it’s turkey on rye or a breakfast burrito, grab something to eat and attend one of the dozens of Brown Bag sessions at the 68th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo. Brown Bags take place on August 1, 2, and 3; breakfast sessions run from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., and lunch sessions from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Each Brown Bag runs twice, as a breakfast and a lunch session, giving attendees greater flexibility in finding time to take in this worthwhile educational content.

Although Brown Bags cost a little extra— just $25—above AACC’s new simplified fee structure, they are limited to just 10 participants, providing a unique learning environment in the midst of a major meeting. “In contrast to Symposia or Short Courses,” said T. Scott Isbell, PhD, DABCC, who coordinated this year’s sessions as part of the Annual Meeting Organizing Committee (AMOC), “Brown Bag sessions are intended to be interactive and intimate, giving attendees direct interaction with experts in laboratory medicine.”

The topics are highly varied, including laboratory management, informatics, applications in mass spectrometry, infectious disease testing, point-of-care testing, and molecular diagnostics.

You can take a critical test results boot camp, attend a session on prostate cancer markers, learn more about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vitamin D Standardization-Certification Program, and better understand how to optimize PT/INR testing for patients presenting to the emergency department with stroke.

These timely and relevant topics presented at round tables to facilitate interaction between presenters and attendees are well worth an early start to the day or foregoing other lunch plans, according to Isbell. “Attending a Brown Bag provides the participant with the opportunity to gain focused and practical information across many subjects within laboratory medicine.”

AMOC received about 120 proposals this year for Brown Bag courses. The proposals are scored and ranked, and then the committee discusses them. “Our top priority is to ensure quality Brown Bag sessions representing current practice and many aspects of laboratory medicine,” said Isbell.

With so many sessions to choose from, how can you pick which ones to attend? “They are all so good,” Isbell agreed. “However, I am particularly drawn to those sessions that address an issue currently affecting me as laboratory medical director. With such a diverse offering of Brown Bag sessions, our hope is there is something for everyone at the meeting.”

Take a look at the Brown Bag sessions and register for your favorites.

Reminder: Brown Bag sessions require tickets and additional fees, with advance registration recommended.