I am looking forward to welcoming you back to ACRM 99th Annual Conference, our first in-person annual meeting since 2019! This year’s event will be held in Chicago on 6 – 11 November 2022. There has been a lot of activity since we last met, and we are excited and ready to show you our expansive educational program with a variety of new and traditional topic areas and top-caliber presenters. With 35 topic areas represented, we are excited to present the largest interdisciplinary rehabilitation research conference in ACRM history!

COLLABORATION AND NETWORKING

This year’s annual conference is the place to be for collaboration and networking to advance rehabilitation research and care worldwide. The conference will include 35 different tracks including 14 new content areas and the largest exhibit hall with more exhibitors and sponsors than ever before. The new content areas include burn rehabilitation, trauma rehabilitation, telehealth, skin management, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, leadership, caregiver needs, COVID-19, ethics, ICU rehabilitation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and more. In addition, we have 300+ educational sessions, symposia and lectures, 600+ scientific papers and digital poster presentations, 90+ exhibit booths, and up to 400+ CME/CEUs available for 13 different disciplines. Highlighted this year is our new digital poster neighborhood, an upgrade of the visual and viewing experience of our poster presentations with dedicated interactive time with poster authors.

One feature of the conference is always our broad array of instructional courses. We are pleased to bring these back to our in-person event, where attendees will benefit from their hands-on nature and in-depth discussions. This year we will have 40 half- and full-day courses to choose from. I strongly encourage you to sign up for them when you register.

WELCOME RECEPTION, COCKTAIL PARTY, GALA

We have a number of great activities planned for our return to in-person conference, including receptions and cocktail parties each night in the EXPO hall, our gala on Thursday night featuring a taste of Chicago, receptions built around our early career, mentorship, and International ISIG Brucker Symposium events. We’re excited to present four fantastic plenaries, including Plenary I – Justine “Justice” Shorter, MA, Plenary II – Matthew Sanford, MA, Plenary III – Ross D. Zafonte, DO, and Plenary IV – Brian Harris, MA, MT-BC, NMT/F featuring live music from Chad Lawson, internationally renowned pianist and composer.

COMMUNITY GROUP EXPANSION

Over this past year, we have supported community groups as they evolve and grow, updating the scope and mission of each group. We have added a new networking group on Behavioral Health and have a newly forming group on Burn Rehabilitation.

To help you navigate the program and find the content for each of the community groups at the annual meeting, we developed QR codes that direct attendees to the online programming educational content in that specific area.

One other development I would like to share with you is the launch of our first Leadership Mentoring initiative. The Leadership Mentoring Program is designed to provide tailored leadership guidance to ACRM members at any career stage. The aim is to foster the advancement of rehabilitation professionals, decrease the burden of securing a mentor or mentee, and increase the number of rehabilitation professionals who are well-positioned for leadership roles inside and outside of ACRM. The 9-month program started at the Spring Meeting in April 2022 and will conclude this December 2022. We will highlight the inaugural class during our annual meeting in November.

I hope you will make time to join us in person in Chicago, and I personally welcome you to join the ACRM family in networking, collaboration, and putting research into practice! See you in Chicago!!!

With gratitude,