Meeting planners have made it easier than ever for attendees to navigate Digestive Disease Week® (DDW), which will be held June 2-5 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.
DDW Mobile App
The DDW Mobile App is your one-stop shop for meeting navigation. You can find complete scientific session information, access convention center maps and log in to create your personal itinerary.
The app is home to the most up-to-date, comprehensive meeting information, from speaker changes to schedule updates. Schedule information is organized by day, time, society and track, and every session is fully searchable.
“The app is a powerful tool that makes the meeting easier to navigate,” said DDW Council Chair Grace H. Elta, MD, AGAF, FASGE. “It’s useful for giving directions and let’s you know what’s going on when. You can also look up posters and sessions that fall within a specific DDW Track instead of searching by society. This streamlines the attendee experience, saves you time and better integrates the meeting.”
The app allows you to search full-text poster abstracts and access e-posters through the “E-posters” button on the home screen by entering your badge number. The app can also be used to track and claim CME credit. Simply log in to the app, tap “Claim My CME” and it will take you to the site to print your certificate.
The app can also help you network at DDW by searching for attendees through the Peer Finder feature. Simply log in, touch “Peer Finder” on the home screen and search for a fellow attendee. From there, you can send a message or set up a meeting.
The app can be downloaded from the Apple Store or Google Play. Just go the store and search “DDW 2018,” download the app and sign in with the name and attendee number on your DDW badge. You will need to know your Apple ID and login information to download the app from the Apple store, even though it is free. You can also access the Online Planner ahead of the meeting.
Expanded DDW Tracks
DDW planners have organized this year’s programming into 17 color-coded educational tracks instead of 15. The tracks were refined to better accommodate attendees’ interests and to better categorize the meeting.
“Health Care Delivery, Disparities and Practice Management” was split into two tracks: “Health Care Delivery and Disparities” and “Practice Management.” “Clinical Practice” was also added as a secondary track for clinicians who may not have a specific research focus but want to attend sessions that are clinical in nature. While searching within the “Esophageal Diseases” track, for example, the “Clinical Practice” secondary track will populate with esophageal sessions that have a clinical focus.
“This is for the private practitioner who really does all of the organ tracks and is not focused in one area because they’re not primarily doing research, they’re doing patient care and have to know all of the aspects,” said Dr. Elta, professor of medicine, associate chief for clinical programs and director of the medical procedure unit at the University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor. “If we think a session is good for the clinician, it will be under the secondary track of ‘Clinical Practice’.”
Browse the tracks via the mobile app and look for color-coded printed materials in the convention center (see chart below) to locate sessions and posters of interest. Tracks are also the easiest way to create your personal itinerary on the app.
This year, Exhibitor Product Categories are no longer matched to the educational tracks. DDW has reorganized and updated exhibitor-selected product categories to better reflect current terminology, outline new products and emerging technology within the GI space.
How You Can Use Tracks
- In the DDW Mobile App, browse sessions by track. For example, sessions that relate to basic science are grouped together. The tracks include sessions and posters for each topic.
- In the Poster Hall, tracks are used to group the posters. Poster locator signs help you navigate the hall by track.
- In printed materials, tracks are color-coded. Please refer to the graphic below to view each track’s assigned color.
