PowerPoint Notes

So, still at my conference. My morning “workshop” on extracorporeal treatments for sepsis was not particularly enlightening.

• Sepsis syndrome is associated with eleventy-billion evil humors in the blood and tissues
• Clearing evil humors in controlled experimental models appears beneficial
• Even though we can really only clear the central circulatory compartment (~30 m^2) while the capillary/lymphatic compartment that communicates directly with tissue is pretty much inaccessible (and huge at ~300 m^2)
• But nothing yet seems to make much of a difference in humans, probably because we are genetically heterogeneous and are comparing real-life sepsis, not controlled, defined models

What did I learn? Well, if you want to use a figure in a slide, try to get it from an online source like a web version or computer generated PDF. If you must scan a printed copy, don’t start with a photocopy, and jack the resolution up higher than your scanner’s default.

Cause what appears minimally jaggy on your computer is damn well unreadable when projected on a conference wall screen.

Learning New Stuff

I have lived a busy meeting day with sessions on acute kidney injury (AKI) stretching from 8am until 7pm. I learned a lot; as I noted on twitter, friends and colleagues greeted me as follows:

Pascale, what are you doing here?

See, my research has focused on diabetic kidney disease and kidney growth. Most recently a project on kidney development has, well, developed. AKI was not in my repertoire.

It is now. Our clinical service needed work, and I needed to learn more. Today helped, although I must admit that my brain was full a couple of hours before we quit meeting for the day.

I have 2.5 more days of workshops and symposia. I hope to bring home lots of information to help my patients. I hope to be refreshed by the sight and scent of azaleas and other flowers in bloom.

And maybe next time I hit this meeting no one will ask why I’m here.

Photo courtesy of PhotoXpress.

OMG It Is Lovely Here

So I am in the Hotel Del Coronado. Ocean breezes scented with some flower that doesn’t live in Omaha waft through my room.

I will spend all day in a conference room discussing acute kidney injury.

Today’s wardrobe items (photo available via the twitter feed) include a pair of black pants with subtle white and blue pinstripes. A wild-print tee in shades of blue, white, and black is up on top with a black cardigan. My black shoes will finish the outfit; if space had been less of an issue, a pair of cobalt blue patent pumps would finish the look.

The trousers are neutral enough that after 24 hours on a hanger I could wear them again with a different top, extending my carry-on wardrobe another day.

Later today I will discuss the sciencey stuff going on at the meeting. In the meantime, at least I see no dirty snow outside of the window.

And that’s a very good thing.

The Art of Packing

I officially start my 2010 travels today, blogging from Omaha’s Eppley Airfield. When I awoke, Omaha registered 9 degrees; I am heading to the San Diego area where the predicted high for the next 5 days hovers around 70. I will be making a stop in Denver, where I hope my only exposure involves the climate-controlled airport.

I managed to get clothing for this 5-day adventure into a roll-aboard bag and my computer tote. How? Careful planning and experience!

For today, I start with a pair of dark-wash, straight-leg jeans and a black leather belt that will fill all my needs during the trip. To these I add a comfortable, cotton top with elbow-length sleeves. It will be warm enough on the plane, but comfortable at my destination as well. 

My parents dropped me off this morning; had I been parking at the airport, I would have worn a sensible puffer coat and left it in the car. With delivery and pick-up service from family, I could forego that layer and wear a water-resistant gray trench, the perfect weight for windy evenings along the bay.

On my feet are a pair of 3” black patent slingbacks that are incredibly comfortable and easy to take off for security. They will work with most of my outfits, although I did squeeze in one pair of open-toed shoes. I have no idea when enough snow and slush will clear in Omaha to wear them at home.

I only needed 3 days plus the travel days for this meeting. I easily could have done one or two more days with a couple of additional shirts, as I will demonstrate in the days to come. Had this meeting required cold-weather clothes or dressier attire, I might have had to check a garment bag. In that case, my shoe wardrobe would also expand.

So challenge yourself to carry-on for meetings. Plan your wardrobe carefully (that is what a spreadsheet is for).

Learning In Lovely Location

Meetings, odds, and ends fill the day as I ready myself for the first trip of 2010. Tomorrow I will flee Omaha and its never-melting snow for a conference on continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). I have taken on responsibility for a program at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center of Omaha, and immersing myself in the topic for 3.5 days seemed a great way to get up to speed. The fact that the meeting is on Coronado Island, near San Diego, during the last dreary week of February is completely a coincidence and had nothing to do with my desire to attend.

If you believe the location of this meeting did not influence my decision to attend, I would like to sell you the Coronado bridge (see photo).

CRRT has become the default treatment for most intensive care unit patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). It makes sense that if you unstable enough for an ICU, then you are unstable enough to not tolerate intermittent hemodialysis. AKI is the focus of a special section in the just-published February issue of ASN Kidney News, and an article by Ashita Tolwani (starting on page 12) focuses on this very issue.

The role of CRRT in AKI seems fairly clear; we are currently exploring the best way to deliver it to patients ranging from 10 to 300 pounds. Various options for hardware exist, and their relative advantages and disadvantages must be explored. CRRT may also be able to play a role in sepsis and other conditions, and I will attend sessions discussing these cutting-edge issues.

For the rest of the week my posts will deal with CRRT, packing for such a trip, and the lovely weather in Coronado. I will be in a hotel conference room from  7am till 7pm while I’m there, but at least when I look out the window I will not see dirty snow.

Stating the Obvious

While waiting for an elevator during rounds today the following arrived in my email box from Principal Investigator E-Alert:

Reader Question: A month ago I was flying to a convention of my research specialty in San Francisco, and in one of my checked bags was my notebook computer and three discs of raw data (non-encrypted) on about 800 patients we have enrolled in a clinical trial. But the airline lost the bag in transit. Of course, I filed a "lost bag" claim with them, but no trace of it yet. Little hope now. I have heard there is some new law called HITECH that applies to lost data. What should I do at this point? Should I already have done anything?

Expert Comments: Brace yourself, we're going to have to deal with some "alphabet soup" of U.S. government acronyms while explaining your situation.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, is the U.S.A. Federal law that requires you take immediate action and notify those affected by a loss of protected health information (PHI).

First, figure out if HITECH applies. In order for it to come into play, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability of Accountability Act of 1996) has to apply to you. It does if you're working with patients. However, does HIPAA apply to the particular data you've lost? If you took all of the identifiers off the data, then you're ok because de-identified data isn't covered by HIPAA or HITECH.

View the remainder of the expert comments

Comments by Kristen H. West, J.D., Associate V.P. and Director, Office of Research Compliance, Emory University Atlanta

The expert goes on to more details about the relevant laws and notification requirements- you can follow the link above if you want more. Only the commentary addressed the real issue:

Why would you check a laptop?

1. Laptops are fragile. Don’t let that aluminum exterior fool you; that screen is just waiting to be cracked. Have you watched the way checked bags are handled? Remember those Samsonite commercials when they gave apes at the zoo luggage to destroy? You really want folks to play catch with your computer in a tote bag? Really?
2. Laptops are valuable. Even if it is years old and you have to duct-tape the CD drive closed, someone can pick it up and sell it for a few bucks. Your checked bags have to be accessible to TSA for search; do you really think everyone who touches luggage is immune to thievery? Really?
3. Even in puddle-jumper jets like those by Embraer  you can usually keep your laptop. Roll-aboard bags must be gate-checked, but surely you have a padded tote for the laptop that will fit under the seat in front of you or in those tiny overhead bins. Even when the compartments are filled, the attendants can usually check the tote but tuck your laptop in one of their cubbies during take-off and landing.

My next question:

Why were you traveling with all those data?

1. Planning to work in the airport or on the plane? And you checked your laptop?
2. Planning to work during the meeting? Then why are you going? You are supposed to be meeting- learning, networking, and interacting. Not analyzing your own data in your room.
3. Planning to work in the evening? At a convention of your research specialty in San Francisco? Go out and socialize; the best collaborations in science begin in bars!
4. IRBs require data protection plans. At my institution, we specify that data will be coded and password protected on our servers. Any hard copies will be kept in locked areas accessible only to the PI and other approved personnel. So why did you think taking them on a trip was appropriate?
5. If you absolutely need to access large data sets, invest in some sort of cloud computing. Your institution may be able to set up remote server access for you, and other options are out there. I subscribe to DropBox. Up to 2 Gb can be stored for free, and the applet synchronizes the most recent version with all computers you install it on. Other services also allow you to store files and access them via any internet connection with appropriate security measures.

The bottom line: The scenario described should not have occurred for a whole bunch of reasons. Traveling with a laptop often allows me to accomplish something during delays at O’Hare (as well as sharing my ongoing deep insights with readers of this blog), and I love my Lenovo Ideabook S10 netbook. I would never, never, ever check it!

“All of the easy experiments have been done”*

I am attending a great meeting right now. About 110 participants are gathered in a nondescript conference room in the DC area. The morning session provided valuable background information for my next proposal. Multiple speakers reviewed the embryology and gene expression of genitourinary development. I am amazed at how many things must go right for the urinary tract to form correctly. Yet, most of the time, it works out!

My brain is really, really full right now.

Overlapping phenotype (clinical presentation) seems to be a huge problem within this field. Very few identified mutations consistently produce the same clinical picture, even within members of the same kindred. This is true for some mouse models also! Trying to find genes of interest with a variable phenotype  will be problematic. Throw in environmental influences, like intrauterine exposures or post-natal infections, and you have a real mess to sort out. Like most diseases, what we identify as a single diagnosis likely results from numerous different causes. A single causative factor or gene may produce multiple diagnoses as well.

For example, we know the genetic defect in branchio-oto-renal syndrome (BOR), an autosomal dominant mutation in the gene EYA1. I know of an affected family where one member was born with a single kidney (unilateral renal agenesis). The other kidney is normal, and the patient’s renal function remains normal at adulthood. This patient had no extrarenal manifestations of the syndrome. Another child was born with only one kidney, and it showed dysplasia (small with cysts and areas that appear abnormal on ultrasound). Eventually this child required a kidney transplant. Other children in the family failed to form kidneys at all and died in utero. These variable phenotypes all resulted from the exact same genetic mutation. What modifies this mutation to make it milder in some cases and more severe in others? If only one of the living children had been born, and there had been no family history, how would we have classified them for gene association studies?

Part of the meeting is devoted to discussing strategies to scan large populations for gene associations. Lucky for me that part occurs tomorrow; I will have a chance to empty a bit of my brain by then!

Congenital renal anomalies cause ~40% of end-stage kidney failure in children throughout the world. Clearly, we need a better understanding of this spectrum of disorders. Small, intense meetings such as this one are a great way to focus parties of interest on a common goal and make things happen.

I’m glad I’m here. And I hope I can help!

*The title of this post is the first of “Carmines Laws of Science.” Credit must go to Pamela Carmines, PhD, a colleague in Cellular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Learning Never Stops

Once again, I find myself in the Omaha airport using their free wi-fi to update my blog. Today I travel to Boston for the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

This meeting is not sciencey.

This meeting features my hobby, faculty development. If we want faculty to perform functions not featured in their degree training, then we must provide opportunities to further their skills.  For example, no physician or scientist I know received administrative training during their formative years. Instead, the traditional route has been to promote them until they fail. This strategy actually worked out pretty well for awhile; if you can run a big lab or clinical section, you probably have the skills to lead a department. Unfortunately, the strategy also leads some people to failure.

I serve on a couple of committees that implement faculty development programs. Topics include educational techniques, leadership skills, hot topics like programmatic assessment, and more basic skills like writing. The chancellor provides a generous budget, and our sessions receive good ratings from faculty who attend. A 90 minute lunch-&-learn typically brings in 50 attendees, while the all-day institutes often draw larger crowds.

So I am off to ponder being a better faculty  member for a few days. Boston is usually fun, although nippy, and I know I will learn stuff. Stay tuned for updates.

Here is a question for any academic readers who wander by: What is the most important thing your institution needs to help you learn to succeed in all aspects of your job? Leave a comment and I will find programs that address the issue.

Random Thoughts Between Road Trips

I feel a little overwhelmed right now. I just returned from Renal Week 2009, the major US nephrology meeting.

• Work accomplished? Check-
• New ideas generated? Check-
• Good time had? Check-

Back at the homestead in Omaha, one might think I kicked back and relaxed; however, I find myself trapped between my dirty laundry and my empty suitcase. Yup, I head for Boston and the AAMC meeting this Friday.

Of course, distractions presented themselves as well. My new glasses arrived, and yesterday the braces came off a whole 2 months early.

Last night we saw the stage show, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. I truly believe that all of the world’s ills would be fixed if life were more like a musical. Of course, bursting into song at critical moments will likely get you committed- and those around you rarely join in and dance with you! White Christmas, the movie, does not make a lot of sense (a general retiring on the eve of battle? Give me a freakin’ break!), yet every Thanksgiving it goes in the DVD player while we wash the good dishes. The music swings,you feel warm and fuzzy, and who can resist those dance numbers with Vera-Ellen and Bob Fosse?

The stage version eliminates some of the movie’s problematic elements. General Waverly ships stateside for a war wound, and the minstrel show number is eliminated (though it is more politically correct than the black-face number in Holiday Inn, the flick in which White Christmas, the song, originally debuted). More pieces from the Irving Berlin songbook show up. The result is an evening that not only generates that warm-fuzzy holiday feeling, but leaves you humming and toe-tapping.

This fall I began tap lessons for the first time in my life. I now recognize the steps on the stage, and I have an idea how difficult those production numbers can be. Given the sweating after my hour class in shorts, I cannot imagine how hot those poor cast members are in ski sweaters and lights.

I should probably work now, or at least plan my wardrobe for Boston. A Big Thanks to the touring company of White Christmas- you made my evening! I will keep you in mind while I shuffle-hop-step tonight.

Photocollage created with images from PhotoXpress.

On The Road Again

Tomorrow I hit the airport en route to Renal Week, the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Nephrology. After some administrative work, my week will be devoted to all things kidney. From the most basic science to the most novel clinical trial, 14,000 devotees of urine (or lack thereof) will be gathered to celebrate their favorite organ.

Attendees and other kidney fans are invited to Tweet the Week. We will be twittering about the meeting and other events surrounding it. I am sure Renal Week will provide fodder for this august venue as well.

I will also try to update everyone on the weather. After all, I will be in San Diego. I get to gloat at those I leave behind in Nebraksa.

A new podcast should also be available soon. I chat with current president Tom Coffman and president-elect Sharon Anderson about the ASN. Look for it and other meeting stuff on the site or in our iTunes area.

For the rest of the day, well, my brain has already flown west…

Tweet the Week in San Diego

Those planning to attend Renal Week, the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, are invited to Tweet the Week. A lot of those signing up for the activity have not tweeted before. Some of the nuts and bolts of the service are obvious after the sign-up process, but there are ins and outs of the Twitterverse that may not be readily apparent.

Basics of Twitter

So you have a screen name (if not, click on the logo below; all you need is a valid email to sign up). Now it is time to create your profile page. Try to come up with a photo or image of some kind to represent you online. Put some information about who you are, but nothing you don’t want strangers to see. For an example, click on the Tweet the Week logo below; it will take you to the RenalWeek profile.

You also have to make a choice about whether or not to protect your updates. If you do not, anyone on Twitter can follow you and see what you put out there. You can go through your list of followers every so often and block anyone you want (like the half-naked women whose profiles list their favorite sex act), but you will also encounter a broader, more interesting swath of people this way. If you protect, then only people who you approve can see your updates; however, this means you will have to manually OK each and every follow.

For Tweet the Week, we have chosen to keep the feed closed. Some of the followers are closed, but most are public. RenalWeek is following all of the participants. Anything tweeted by RenalWeek will be visible only to official followers. 

Specific Tweet the Week Issues

If you are tweeting something general on your public feed, anyone who follows you will see it, including RenalWeek. If you want to send a message to RenalWeek that you only want the Tweet the Week crowd to see, you can direct message it. Do this by placing “D” in front of the screen name: D RenalWeek. If it is something of interest to the RenalWeek crowd, it can then be retweeted. Most twitter clients allow you to repeat someone’s tweet; this is how stuff “goes viral” and spreads quickly.

Mechanics of Twittering On the Go

You can tweet from a computer, and there certainly will be internet access in the San Diego Convention Center. Most stuff worth chatting about does not happen when you are near a screen. Luckily, Twitter was made for the mobile world, with a character limit shorter than a standard text message. You can register your cell phone and have tweets texted to you; this may drive you crazy after a while. You can also set it up so you can send tweets to the service via text message. Your usual text fees apply, so figure out ahead of time what this may cost you.

If you have a smart phone, you are in luck. BlackBerries, iPhones, and Pre’s all have Twitter clients that make participation easy and fun. There are too many to list here, and more popping up every day; a quick Google search will take you to lots of choices.

Even if you decide to limit your tweets to your laptop, you may want to check out a dedicated Twitter client. Many will let you group your followers or work with multiple accounts. I am using TweetDeck, and I have my personal account (PHLane; feed shown on the blog page above) and the RenalWeek account for Tweet the Week. A bunch of these are available; some may be downloaded via the Twitter web site, and there is a Wiki that lists many more.

I hope you decided to attend RenalWeek and to Tweet the Week with us. If you have any specific questions, ask in the comments below so others can share your answer.

Another Value to Scientific Meetings

So I have been in intense morning science sessions, followed by relaxing poolside, and then dinner and 1-2 hours of PM science. Most of what I have heard over the past 3 days has not been relevant to the current projects in my lab.

So what good does being here do me?

Well, my scientific creative juices are flowing. This morning I sketched out the general strategy to make one of my projects potentially fundable. We still have some technical kinks to work through, and we need to generate some key data points, but all in all I am ready to go back and research again.

Unfortunately, I will start covering the inpatient service Monday morning. It will slow me down… but I am ready to rock!

By the way, my impersonation of a neuroscience did not result in horrible amounts of embarrassment. Some of the real neuroscience people thought our work was really interesting. I hope my colleague has her family situation calmed and is ready to write!

Joys of Seniority

For those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter (@PHLane):

1. Shame on you! You’re missing the wittiest 140 character updates available!
2. An update: due to a family medical emergency, the colleague working in my lab is not at the current meeting to present her work in about 90 minutes.

The poster arrived by FedEx this morning. I pinned it up and read it. And I’m in trouble.

See, Claudia Chaperon is interested in circadian rhythm and its potential relationship to cardiovascular and renal risk factors, especially in relationship to menopause. She was looking for a lab with the equipment she needed that could also help her learn RT-PCR techniques. I fit the bill, and i have a deepening interest in menopause from a personal standpoint.

I did suggest that she sample kidneys as well as the SCN, that teeny weeny part of the brain she samples for gene expression. And there is rhythmic gene expression with a 4 hour lag behind SCN expression. But I can’t say much more than that…

The great joy of seniority is I DON”T HAVE TO EVEN TRY. I can explain the situation and give them Claudia’s email for other “neurosciencey” questions. If I were a bit juinior, I would have spent my afternoon cramming, not enjoying a lovely day by the pool.

Now this is the real joy of tenure!

Photo courtesy of PhotoXpress.

On Meetings Large & Small

For the next few days I will be communicating from a conference on the role sex plays in the kidney and in cardiovascular disease in general.

I have commented at length on planning and packing for meetings, and on various aspects of larger meetings I have attended. These included Experimental Biology and the Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.

Smaller meetings are different (duh). For about 3 days I will be with a group of people with very similar interests. We will talk together, eat together, drink together, and sleep together (in the same hotel, not the same room). These meetings are a great “breeding ground” for new ideas and approaches. While big meetings should generally include a personal session of touristy behavior, smaller meetings are more intense. And, ultimately, more valuable, even though some may see them as less prestigious than their larger brethren.

When I get bored, I will twitter about random thoughts (@phlane), and I will try to update the blog once or twice. I just finished my last book, About Face, and I should post another What I’m Reading on Sunday. After all, I will have time to burn in airports!

Selling Your Poster

Above the three Lanes are shown enjoying a fine meal in a New Orleans establishment, after all of our posters are done.

So you have designed and printed your poster. Now you will have to stand next to it for a period of time. This presents a great opportunity for you to present your work one-on-one to those most interested in it. Some people squander the moment.

First of all, dress professionally. This means some sort of suit-like outfit. As I have noted before, if you are showing up on the Nobel short list you can wear jeans to your presentation. Until then, be professional! Read the poster instructions. Show up and stay the whole time.

Those strolling by will generally fall into 3 groups. Most will read the title, perhaps smile at you, and then walk on by. Don't feel bad - they are just looking for another category. Another group are your colleagues. They will come by to see your work, catch up, and otherwise see what you are presenting. The third group are those who are interested in your topic in some way. This is the group for which you prepare.

If someone you don't know spends more than a minute reading your work, smile and say hello. Offer to answer questions. Don't pretend like they aren't there (you would be surprised how often this happens). Try to read their name badge; you may recognize it! Think of this as a golden opportunity to meet those whose work you cite!

Others who decide they are interested in your work will ask you to tell them about it, rather than reading the poster while you watch them. Have the 2 minute summary ready:

• Why we did it
• What we did
• What we found
• What we think it means

Each point requires one or two sentences. "We thought factor X might cause Y. We knocked-out the gene for factor X in mice and found that they didn't develop Y. Factor X may be a new therapeutic target for disease ABC which is characterized by high levels of Y." They can then ask you to clarify what they are most interested in, whether it be how you knocked-out the gene, how you measured Y, or why you think any of this has any relevance to the real world.

Poster presentations present challenges, but they are a great way to have others discuss your work. Remember, this is your chance to present your hot science to the world - not "just a poster."

Scientific Posters: The Rules

For the last 5 days I have been in New Orleans for the Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association. I feel like I spent about 3 days standing next to my poster (although it was only about 4 hours total). This experience did give me a chance to see a lot of examples of the art of the scientific poster. My daughter, a PR major, also attended the meeting. She was, frankly, appalled by the presentation skills (or lack thereof) demonstrated at the sessions.

One of the pleasures of my current job is giving a talk on poster presentation preparations to our summer research students. Since the biomedical community at large seems to lack these skills (or ignore them), they will be reviewed over the following few posts.

Posters were first introduced in the mid-1970's to increase the number of presentations at scientific meetings, as well as fostering 1 to 1 communication. They do have some disadvantages. First, those interested in a topic are likely to be presenting simultaneously. As the format has multiplied, it is possible to feel overwhelmed by a forest of boards. It is also much easier to walk past a bad poster than to ignore a bad PowerPoint.

Like all presentations, a poster should be thoughtfully prepared following the specifications of the meeting. Yes, you need to read and follow the instructions! It just looks silly (or dumb) to tack a vertical poster on a landscape board. Do you want those reviewing your papers or grants to think you are that careless?

By far the most important part of the poster is the title. The actual words were determined when preparing the abstract; now you have to present them so the audience sees and understands them. Title fonts should be 90 point minimum, and dark type on a light background is most readable. The title is one place on the poster where some liberties can be taken; light font on a dark background can be used here to grab attention. Most meetings then specify that the authors and institutions follow below the title in a smaller type.

For example:

Logos or other artwork flanking the title are often attention grabbing and may help in identification of you and your institution. I actually designed a logo for my lab that incorporates the University's current logo:

A poster across from me at ADA listed a title and beneath it listed no authors; instead it was from "The Children's Hospital and Rich Donor Institute." No academic institution or city was named. Now, they may be named "The Children's Hospital" but I have to tell you, many places share these vague names. "Rich Donor Institute" may be world famous, but I had no clue where it was. I know the instructions for the posters said to list the institution and city where the work was done. Leaving this information off made me think that this group was

(1) incredibly arrogant

(2) somewhat stupid, or

(3) all of the above.

Those are the nuts and bolts of poster titles. You have about 10 seconds to catch someone's attention as they stroll through the rows of presentations - make sure your title doesn't drive them away!

Long time, no post...

It has been 5 days since my last post, and I have been having a great time in New Orleans! One thing about this city, you just don't get the opportunity to be hungry or thirsty for long.

It has also helped that in addition to my loving spouse (who is faithfully attending sessions, but he is primarily a diabetes doc) my 21 year old daughter has come along. As she is currently a PR intern for the local ADA chapter, the meeting has been educational for her as well. And she has been great company when I have played hookey to shop or sight-see!

One thing that has appalled her is the lack of presentation skills, both on the platform and the poster. Over the next few posts I will highlight some of the common mistakes we have observed, as well as reviewing the literature (yup, there is a scientific literature) on poster presentations.

In the meantime, the good times continue to roll in the Crescent City.

Science of Wardrobe Management II: Excel's Real Use

So you've decided to leave the belly shirts and bustiers at home during EB or other scientific endeavors. Is there a way to get 5 days of clothing in a carry-on bag?

If I said "No," this would be a really short blog, so there must be! The secret is Excel. Yup, packing is the ultimate spread-sheet chore.

First, create something like this for your meeting or event:

There is a column for each day you will travel, a field for notable events on that day, and areas for the outfit, including shoes. The most important way to conserve space is to pack items that work on multiple days. This statement is especially true for shoes which take up a lot of suitcase landscape! In general, a pair that you can sprint through airports in (on your feet) and one other (in the case) can be done in an overhead bin bag. If you need more than those two pair you will likely end up checking a bigger bag. Speaking of airport shoes, be sure you can get them on and off easily! While comfort and movement are important, elaborate shoes that stall the security line may earn you more enemies than a crying baby. Just imagine being behind someone who has to remove mid-thigh lace-up boots. You get the idea now, huh?

Clothing can also multitask. Unless you are a nobel laureate in neurosciences at a really casual meeting (see prior post, Basics), you probably need a suit or some similar wardrobe item. Pair the jacket with coordinating pants or skirt one day and wear the full suit another. It's like 2 different outfits, but only 1 jacket! Be sure all your outfits have a jacket or cardigan planned - no matter what the weather is like outside, the convention center rooms are usually freezing. If not, you can always remove it.

There are a number of strategies for getting stuff in the suitcase. I like to take longer items like trousers and dresses and lay them lengthwise in the case first. Other stuff then gets packed, and the longer items wrap around the other stuff. This prevents creases in things that are longer than the suitcase.

Don't forget to throw in an extra shirt and a pair of jeans. Even if disaster happens in the way of a bloody mary down the suit jacket on it's first wear, at least you will have something to schlep about in while the hotel cleaning service gets your suit done up. It's also our job to stimulate the local economy while we are at a meeting (that's why cities build convention centers). As long as I get there with my presentation and a credit card, I know I can survive!

Spring: Thoughts of airports...

Spring. The weather is warmer, the birds are singing, and it's time to start traveling! For those of you not in academic medicine, the year has a distinct rhythm. Very few meetings seem to happen between mid-November and March. I believe this is because of family holidays and bad weather during these months. Once spring hits, it's open season on meetings.

It's not just the chance to present science and eat out with your peers. No, committees, study sections, advisory groups, and specialty interest groups all seem to want to fly somewhere they are not. It is like some sort of weird, non-migratory behavior. We generally avoid blizzards this time of year, but thunderstorms can still ground planes and thwart the best planned travel. It pays to travel with entertainment - books, movies, and other toys can make 9 hours at O'Hare seem like 9 hours, not 18! I know, I've done it a few times.

For those of us who log a bit of air travel each year, the airport time can be the worst part. There are signs all over the airport about the 3-1-1 rule: carry-on liquids need to be 3 oz max, you put them in a 1 quart ziplock bag, and each passenger gets 1 bag. If you want more information about this, click on the picture- it will take you to the TSA website with more than you every could want to know! 3-1-1 has been the case since September 2006. Even so, there are still people in line who try to carry on big bottles of stuff. DON'T BE ONE OF THESE PEOPLE. YOU JUST LOOK DUMB.

A number of airlines now charge for checked bags. I believe this is a mistake; I would charge for any carry-on that won't fit under the seat, and give that second carry-on bag as a bonus to my frequent fliers. After all, stowing carry-on luggage is the biggest bottleneck in boarding the plane. When I rule the world things will be different, but in the meantime this does not mean that ANYTHING can be carried onto the plane to avoid these fees! I've seen people trying to put king-size bedding sets in the overhead compartment. It's insane!

Finally, watch where you're going in the airport. I am amazed at how many people just seem to have no clue that someone is in front of/beside/behind them. Try to be polite and considerate; someone will be delighted with your attitude. Especially at O'Hare.

That's enough rambling and ranting for one day. Feel free to say hello if you see me in the Red Carpet Club at O'Hare or Denver or one of the other places I go this year. I will have my nose buried in a really good book.