The list of educational opportunities specifically geared towards correctional medicine is woefully short.  We correctional specialists need to take advantage of as many of our own conferences as we can.

One excellent resource for several years has been the one day conference put on by the American College of Correctional Physicians (formally known as the Society of Correctional Physicians).  Historically, this conference has always been held on the Sunday before the NCCHC National Conference held in October.  These ACCP conferences have always been excellent, but only held then.

This year, however, is different.  This year, the ACCP is also hosting a spring conference tied to yet another excellent educational opportunity in correctional medicine: the Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice Health.  The Academic Consortium conference will be held this year in Atlanta on March 16th and 17th.  ACCP’s one day conference will be held immediately afterwards, on March 18th, a Saturday.

The conference agenda looks great!  It includes:

“Where are we and how did we get here?” by Dean Rieger: A brief history of how corrections conditions led to creation of standards and the current legal framework under which we operate.

“Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives: When and How to use LARCs for Incarcerated Women and Young Women” by Michelle Staples-Horne

“Trauma-Informed Care: How does previous physical, sexual, and emotional trauma affect the way our patients behave? What should physicians do to avoid retraumatization?” by Christine Doyle, LPD, MSW, LCSW

“HIV: When is it appropriate to continue pre-exposure HIV prophylaxis medications for high-risk patients newly admitted to the institution?” by John May, MD

“Hepatitis C Treatment: Update on screening and treatment in corrections from the clinical and legal perspective” by Lara Strick, MD and Gabe Eber, MPH.

“Opiate Withdrawal: What is the current state of the art to prevent suffering and death?” by Todd Wilcox, MD

“Approach to the Transgender Patient in Jail or Prison” by Anthony Peterson, MD, and Lara Strick MD

And, of course, one of the great things about going to a conference devoted to correctional medicine is that we get to meet our kindred spirits.  I have always found the hallway discussions as meaningful and enjoyable as the conferences!

You can sign up for the ACCP conference here.

And you certainly will want to attend the Academic Consortium, as well. Information on the Academic Consortium is found here.

Do you know of another conference devoted to Correctional Medicine?  Please let me know the details so I can spread the message here on JailMedicine!