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NEWS
Medical conference kicks off
Marie Budev, MD, lectures during the annual Jose I. Ricard Family Medicine and Sports Medicine Conference on Friday, Nov. 14, 2008, at Pullman Plaza Hotel.
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON -- Hundreds of people learned about eating disorders, stomach ulcers and tobacco cessation techniques Friday at Pullman Plaza Hotel.
The topics were just a few of more than 25 diverse educational sessions to be presented at the annual Jose I. Ricard Family Medicine and Sports Medicine Conference this weekend. The conference kicked off Friday and continues through Sunday.
"It's the largest medical conference in the state every year," said Dr. Joseph Reed of St. Joseph's Hospital in Buckhannon. "I think it's well run, well managed."
Reed has attended the conference every year since its inception in 1987. Staff say the event has become a huge success, with more than 100 exhibitors and 1,500 people in attendance.
Starting a large medical conference in Huntington was important to Dr. Ricard, according to Chris Ferrell, executive director for the Family Medicine Foundation of West Virginia. Ricard died in July, and the conference was renamed this year to honor him. He started the conference as well as Marshall University's sports medicine program, and he assisted the university's athletes since 1981.
Ferrell said some of the hundreds in attendance also bring their families -- another key to Ricard's dream. She said he wanted a conference that welcomed health care professionals' spouses and children, too.
"We're family medicine," she said. "That means family."
Many people attend the conference for its continuing education credits and networking opportunities throughout the medical field.
Toni Charlton, president of the West Virginia Office Managers' Association, said she and other staff attend each year to learn from the many physicians, insurance carriers and pharmaceutical representatives who also attend.
"It's a great networking tool, and I know it's very educational for the doctors," she said.
Program chairman Dr. Robert Walker said probably 2,000 health care providers were attending the conference.
He said the three-day event has grown so large that applications have to stop being accepted.
"We get more people wanting to come than we can let in," he said.
Dr. Greg Juckett, one of Friday's speakers and president of the West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians, said the conference provides great opportunities to network and learn.
The West Virginia University professor spoke on atopic dermatitis, or eczema, a disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the skin.
He said the conference strives to be different each year. Some of this year's sessions looked at depression, heart disease and even wilderness medicine.
"These are things we think will be really important to health care in America," he said.
Walker said the conference is also a convenient way for people throughout the Tri-State to continue their education without traveling far. The conference does attract people from all over, though, he said.
"It's important to the health care community in West Virginia to have a really high quality conference, and it's important to the economy to bring people in," he said.
He said the conference has something for everyone and is not just scientific, but it's also fun and relevant.
"People come back regularly. It's almost like a reunion. People attend this and see each other back here," he said.
