CALL FOR  
PRESENTATION PAPERS
 
Fatigue: The Modern Dilemma 
New and Integrative Tools for 
Optimized Diagnosis and Treatment


The Gateway Medical Conference is seeking presentations for the upcoming meeting to be held April 17 - 21, 2013, in St. Louis.  These presentations should serve to educate and inform healthcare practitioners in the underlying multi-system disorder of fatigue. Presentations should address the causes, effects, treatments and management strategies of fatigue.  Your presentation should integrate the modern dilemma of fatigue with one or more of the focus areas outlined below.  Please also make sure that your presentation meets the proposal requirements. 

This conference will be accredited for continuing medical education credits.
 

The 2013 Gateway Medical Conference is co-sponsored by the  American Academy for Environmental Medicine and the American Holistic Medical Association, for members of both organizations and for other interested medical professionals. 


The information that you present about clinical medicine must be recognized and accepted by the profession or based on evidence that is accepted within the profession as adequate justification.  The Commercial Support Standards also require that your presentation (including slides and handouts) be free of commercial bias and that any information regarding commercial products/services be based on scientific methods generally accepted by the medical community.  When discussing therapeutic options, it is our preference that you use only generic names.  If it is necessary to use a trade name, then those of several companies must be used.
 
All speakers will be required to provide the level of evidence for all patient care recommendations using the AAFP levels of evidence system.  Speakers must include one of the following levels of evidence for each patient care recommendation in their lecture/CME content; speakers must use the highest level of evidence available.
  • Level A (randomized controlled trial/meta-analysis): High-quality randomized controlled trial (RCT) that considers all important outcomes. High-quality meta-analysis (quantitative systematic review) using comprehensive search strategies.
  • Level B (other evidence): A well-designed, nonrandomized clinical trial. A non-quantitative systematic review with appropriate search strategies and well-substantiated conclusions. Includes lower quality RCTs, clinical cohort studies and case-controlled studies with nonbiased selection of study participants and consistent findings. Other evidence, such as high-quality, historical, uncontrolled studies, or well-designed epidemiological studies with compelling findings, is also included.
  • Level C (consensus/expert opinion): Consensus viewpoint or expert opinion.   
STATEMENT OF NEED

Fatigue is the most common complaint among patients today. Patients often rate fatigue as the key reason to a decrease in their quality of life.

There are numerous potential causes of fatigue.  Many chronic diseases list fatigue as a plausible symptom.  Some common causes are metabolic, endocrine, infectious disease, cardiovascular, pulmonary, psychiatric, neurologic, sleep disorders, cancer, rheumatologic, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, auto-immune, toxicologic and obesity.  It is clear the diagnosis of fatigue is complex and poorly understood by many practitioners and the root of fatigue is very likely mutifactorial.

Differential diagnosis and effective treatment of the underlying cause(s) are key to managing fatigue and improving the quality of life in your patients.  

With the complex nature of this disorder, attendees will benefit from this collaborative interdisciplinary approach which will lead to insights necessary to provide a foundation of understanding, diagnosing, and treating this challenging illness.

FOCUS AREA 
  • Multi-System Causes of Fatigue
    • EMF Sensitivity
    • Infectious diseases
    • Metabolic disorders
    • Cardiopulmonary
    • Cancer
    • Obesity
    • Allergic
    • Environmental toxicity
    • Hormonal
    • Chronic infections
    • Gastrointestinal
    • Psychiatric
    • Neurologic
    • Nutritional
    • Sleep disorders
  • Successful clinical strategies for diagnosing, testing and treating fatigue
  • Mind/body approaches
  • Effective methods of detoxification
  • A natural medicine perspective
TIMELINE
SUBMISSION DEADLINE 
October 29, 2012

 

SELECTED SPEAKERS NOTIFIED 
November 26, 2012

 

FINAL PRESENTATIONS DUE
February 18, 2013
 
PRESENTATIONS REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY PLANNING COMMITTEE 
March 25, 2013
 
Emailed to De Rodgers Fox (defox@gatewaymedicalconference.com)  Changes may not be made to content, presenters, slides or delivery after upload. 

LIVE CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS 
April 19 - 21, 2013  
BEFORE YOU BEGIN

You will need to list three (3) session objectives in your proposal, so please have that information prepared prior to your submission. The Gateway Medical Conference objectives are listed below, and the information submitted in your proposal should address at least 1 of the objectives to help set the stage for the meeting. We ask that you please ensure your presentation is unique to this conference; and that your presentation is not given to another organization or event at least two (2) months before/after the scheduled meeting dates (April 17 - 21, 2013). 
  1. Identify the multiple causes of fatigue.
  2. Implement new techniques to address the individual causes of fatigue.
  3. Develop management strategies for your complex patient to achieve optimal health.
  4. Gain comfort with your approach to diagnosing and managing patients with fatigue.
PREPARE YOUR INFORMATION BEFORE SUBMITTING

The Gateway Medical Conference reserves the right to edit titles and content of your abstract submission. Information you should prepare includes: 
  •     CONTACT INFORMATION
    • Full Name, Email 
  •     FACULTY INFORMATION FOR EACH PRESENTER
    • Full Name, Credentials, Job Title, Address, Work and Fax Number 
  •     PRESENTATION TITLE
    • Limited to 50 characters or less -- no exceptions may be made.
    • Long titles are discouraged, and may be edited. 
  •     PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION
    • Limited to 100 words 
    • If your presentation is selected, this description will be posted on the conference website. 
  •     PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 
    • Limited to a maximum of 4000 characters 
  •     BIO FOR EACH PRESENTER 
    • Limited to a maximum of 2000 characters 
    • Written in paragraph format  -- do not use a resume or CV for your bio 
    • Do not compose in the 1st person tense or list hobbies and/or personal family comments. Bios for presenters selected will be posted on the conference website. 
  •     THREE LEARNING OBJECTIVES 
    • For example, "At the end of this presentation the attendee will be able to..."  


TARGET AUDIENCE
Primary Care, Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease and Endocrinology Physicians, Naturopaths, Chiropractors, Doctors of Oriental Medicine, Dentists, Psychologist/Psychiatrics, Physician Assistants, Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Medical Students, Acupuncturists, Occupational and Physical Therapists and Health Educators who treat patients with fatigue.
PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT TO  
COLLEAGUES WHO MAY BE INTERESTED IN PRESENTING AT THIS CONFERENCE.