Save the date: The International Conference will return to Washington, D.C., May 19-24, 2023, to showcase the latest advances in understanding pulmonary disease, critical illness, and sleep disorders from scientists and clinicians at all stages of their careers.

Michael C. Fiore, MD, MPH, MBA, a nationally-recognized expert on smoking cessation, discussed the recent history of tobacco use in the U.S. and strategies for helping the 30 million Americans who do smoke to quit, as 20 percent of all U.S. deaths are due to cigarette-related illnesses.

J. Randall Curtis, MD, MPH, a past ATS president, spoke about promoting compassion in clinical care, research, training, and mentoring at the Plenary Session. In pulmonary medicine, the chronic lung diseases physicians work with are often incurable and cause great suffering that heightens the need for good palliative care, he said.

“We have just come through two years like no other in recent memory because of the pandemic. I think we will emerge stronger and more nimble,” said incoming ATS President Gregory P. Downey, MD, ATSF. He champions expanded educational offerings, support for research, diversity, and international collaboration.

Panelist Jennifer Rama, MD, MEd, said in order to optimally provide care for children with chronic respiratory disorders, many of which disproportionately affect underserved minority populations, better inclusion of underrepresented groups in medicine among providers of pediatric pulmonary medicine is needed.

Elizabeth Wilcox, MD, PhD; Christine Marie Bojanowski, MD; Flavia R. Machado, PhD, MD; and Wael ElMaraachli, MD, delivered the third installment of the 2022 Clinical Year in Review on Tuesday morning at the International Conference.

Pulmonologist Martin J. Tobin, MD, explained that the central lessons from the historic study are the need for those in the medical community to examine their conscience and then speak up when they see something is wrong.