The 15th Annual Gateway Hospital Medicine Conference took place from May 1, 2025, to May 3, 2025, at the Eric P. Newman Education Center (EPNEC). The Gateway Conference planning committee, composed of adult and pediatric physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacists, put extensive effort into designing, planning, and implementing the agenda for the conference. A highly knowledgeable group of physicians with expertise in hospital medicine were recruited to provide education through evidence-based lectures, case-based interactive presentations, panel discussions, and question-and-answer sessions. The conference aimed to “highlight best practices in the specialty of hospital medicine for adult and pediatric hospitalists and techniques to optimize care for the hospitalized patient.”
The planning committee primarily involved members of the Division of Hospital Medicine, with previous Division Chief Mark Williams, MD, Tracey Godbold, MD, Kieran Patel, MD, and Lois Richard, MD, leading the efforts. Samuel Reuter, PA-C, was a member of the committee whose role “was to assist with topics covered, speak at the event, and recruit attendees to the event.” Many of the event’s speakers and organizers were able to enjoy presentations as well. “I really enjoyed the substance abuse panel, with Ben Hoemann and ED Physician Corey Shy,” Samuel shared.
A sizeable group of hospitalists spoke at the conference, including doctors Erin Baum, Anthony Dao, Carol Faulk, Ben Hoemann, Eric Johnson, Eileen Lee, Patricia Litkowski, Nathan Martin, Devin Odom, Brandon Parker, Corey Shy, and Rob Young. Other organizers who presented at the conference included doctors Safa Farrag and Ankita Kapoor, and nurse practitioner Kimberly Boyer. The planning committee was grateful to host several speakers from other divisions of WashU Medicine, as well as visiting professors from other highly regarded institutions.
Ankita Kapoor, MD, collaborated on a lecture with Kimberly Boyer, NP, and Samuel Reuter, PA-C, about new collaborative practice models for physicians and APPs. “I think our presentation went well,” Dr. Kapoor shared. “I did use Poll Everywhere to help engage the audience and answer questions in real time. There was good participation from the audience. We were also approached by attendees after the talk to discuss relevant things related to our presentation.” Dr. Kapoor was also able to attend a few of the other sessions, sharing, “I particularly liked the Care Transitions talk by Mark Williams, and the Inpatient Antibiotic Management talk by Sena Sayood.”
Safa Farrag, MD, hosted two breakout sessions during the conference. The first session was centered around addressing professionalism deficiencies, and the second was regarding physical therapy and outpatient therapy in collaboration with Rob Young, MD. Dr. Farrag said, “We had a great presentation and 100% interaction with all of the audience.” Nathan Martin, MD, also had a positive experience for his session on a clinical unknown case. With about 50 attendees, he said, “everyone seemed to be engaged.”
“I was a speaker on Friday afternoon, and because of my clinical schedule I was only able to attend the talk before mine (Rob Young’s), and it was very good,” Dr. Devin Odom said. “Interaction from the participants was great and they asked a ton of questions at the end which I appreciated.” Dr. Odom also expressed gratitude for the planning of the conference, sharing, “The overall ease of submitting slides, checking in, and presenting was very smooth and well organized.”
Thanks to everyone involved in the planning and execution of this informative event. We look forward to the 16th Annual Gateway conference, which is scheduled for March 29th-April 1, 2026.