20TH ANNIVERSARY PA-AHDI

What a wonderful meeting held this weekend in the "City of Bridges" Pittsburgh! Approximately 110 attendees -- some from as far away as Idaho -- came for an educational opportunity to rival much larger state component associations. Carol Croft, CMT, AHDI-F and her amazing team of engaged members always put on an outstanding conference but this one was the best so far IMHO.

I arrived one day early for a Military Spouse Informational Carol had arranged with the Air Force Reserve Base in Pittsburgh. We enjoyed a nice lunch while explaining the benefits of medical transcription as a portable career for military spouses. It was a small group but a very interested group which included the president of the military spouses association for that base and one from Ohio who promised to help us get meetings scheduled in her state.

The actual meeting began on Friday evening with Cyril Wecht, M.D., one of the country's leading forensic pathologists, who shared some of his most interesting cases with us including the JFK autopsy to include the "magic bullet theory," and many others. Our Saturday began with Vince Consoli speaking on "Professionalism in the Workplace," followed by Arlan Mintz, M.D. who spoke on "Awake Craniotomies," "Diabetes Education" followed, and we concluded with Allan Tsung, M.D. from UPMC who spoke on "Liver Cancer" with streaming video of actual surgical procedures. All in all, it was an amazing array of speakers.

Saturday evening meant a "Duck Boat Tour" around the beautiful city of Pittsburgh and into its three converging rivers -- I even got to drive the boat for a few minutes. Our evening concluded with dinner with a few attendees, Vince and Carol Consoli.

Sunday morning Carol and her team had planned a panel discussion on "Lines and Compensation" on which I was honored to participate. Following this I gave my "Negotiating Your Worth" presentation.

It's hard to say what the best part of this weekend was -- but for me I can drill it down to the following:
1. Harriet Stewart, CMT, AHDI-F doing a demo of the KB in the vendor area.
2. The many "first timers" present at the meeting.
3. The new MT students in attendance -- and the new credentialed folks.
4. The four [4] new AHDI members who joined during the meeting!!!

Thanks PA-AHDI for a very memorable weekend in "The City of Bridges!"