Peter Hackett, MD, describes successful and unsuccessful acclimatization to hypoxia, the limits of hypoxic adaptation and the impact of high altitude on illnesses during his Saturday Opening Ceremony keynote address. Photo by Steve Schneider

For more than 100 years, Denver has attracted leading clinicians and researchers in the fields of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine, and the city has been the backdrop of many scientific and clinical advances. As the American Thoracic Society kicked off its International Conference on Saturday with the 2011 Opening Ceremony, Fellows and Junior Professionals Exchange and Third Annual Foundation Research Program Dinner, presenters and attendees paid tribute to this remarkably influential medical community and sought to inspire future leaders.

ATS President Dean E. Schraufnagel, MD, looked back on his first conference, one of 32 he has attended and come to love for the educational and networking opportunities, as well as the friendships he has forged as a result of his involvement with the ATS.

He noted that Denver’s natural and cultural beauty is matched by its world-class status as a center for healthcare, research and education. It is estimated that almost one-sixth of all U.S. physicians in academic medicine trained at some point in their careers in Denver.

“The renown Denver enjoys in medicine is due largely in part through the discoveries made here and the high-quality of patient care offered in respiratory medicine,” Dr. Schraufnagel said.

In the late 1880s and early 1900s, Denver became a hub for the cure and control of tuberculosis. This appetite for discovery expanded to helping patients with asthma, COPD, interstitial lung disease, cystic fibrosis, pneumonia and lung cancer. Along the way, the fate of Denver’s healthcare teams was set with pioneering studies conducted in oxygen therapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, occupational risks to lung health and mechanical ventilation.

Keynote speaker Peter Hackett, MD, is one such Denver alumnus. An internationally recognized expert in altitude medicine and mountain climber, Dr. Hackett became the first person to climb alone from Mt. Everest’s high camp to its summit and survive. He is director of the Institute for Altitude Medicine in Telluride, Colo., and clinical director of the Altitude Research Center at the University of Colorado. (To view the Webcast of Dr. Hackett’s presentation, go to https://www2.webges.com/library/ats/)

“Even in Denver, there’s 17 percent less oxygen in the air than there is at sea level, and where I live in Telluride, it’s 30 percent less. That’s a significant amount of hypoxia, yet humans adapt very well. In the highest elevations, people are perfectly well with arterial PO2s in the 40s and oxygen saturation in the high 70s to low 80s,” said Dr. Hackett, adding that genetic mechanisms help people to adapt.

Acute mountain sickness is the most common type of high-altitude illness, and each year, Colorado’s 5 million tourists experience this benign condition. The state has about 400 cases of pulmonary edema a year.

“We used to think that everyone with pulmonary edema had to take a helicopter to get to a lower altitude immediately, but now we know that’s not true,” Dr. Hackett said. “Now in Colorado, we put patients on oxygen for 36 hours (at their altitude).”

The annual Fellows and Junior Professionals Exchange, sponsored by the ATS Membership, Members In Transition and Training (MITT), and Training Committees, followed the Opening Ceremony. Fellows, junior faculty members, ATS leaders, program directors, members of the organizing committees and national public health decision makers attended the event and mingled in an informal and relaxed atmosphere.

Twenty internal medicine and pediatric residents who received ATS Resident Travel Awards and 20 recipients of the Minority Trainee Travel Awards (MTTA) were honored. The RTA and MTTA programs are supported by educational grants from Merck.

More than 500 gathered at the Hyatt Regency Denver for the Foundation Research Program Dinner to socialize with friends, honor grant awardees and recognize those whose support made the program possible.

In recognition of Colorado’s ability to draw the brightest and best from around the world, Monica Kraft, MD, ATS vice president, shared a video highlighting some of Colorado’s giants in the field.

James F. Donohue, MD, chair of the Foundation of the ATS, presented the “Breathing for Life” Award to Louis S. Libby, MD. The award, which is the highest honor that the Foundation confers on an ATS member, recognizes Dr. Libby’s leadership in fostering charitable giving to advance pulmonary, critical care and sleep science and clinical practice.

“Dr. Libby has had an enormous impact on many of us—as an inspiring mentor, a supportive colleague and a role model for the compassion, competence and humility that characterizes the best healthcare professionals,” Dr. Donohue said.

The dinner raised more than $300,000 in support of the creation of two new unrestricted research grants for young investigators.

Research Dinner Supporters

The Foundation of the ATS thanks the following companies for supporting the Third Annual ATS Foundation Research Program Dinner:

$50,000 Underwriters

• Merck
• Pfizer, Inc.

$20,000 Patron

• Genentech/Novartis

$10,000 Patrons

• Actelion Pharmaceuticals, US, Inc.
• AstraZeneca LP
• Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
• Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation

$5,000 Sponsors

• Cephalon, Inc.
• Talecris