The American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) recently concluded its 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, DC. Marking another milestone year, the event shattered attendance records with 444 participants hailing from 41 states and 16 different countries. Building upon the success of previous gatherings, this year's meeting saw a surge in interest, reflected in the 45 responses to our call for plenary proposals and 272 responses to our call for abstracts. In addition to our traditional format, this year’s meeting piloted concurrent topical tracks in Environmental & Occupational Medicine, Addiction Toxicology, DEI, and Research, allowing for more educational content than ever before. We also hosted numerous committee and section meetings, including an extremely popular “FIT DoubleDare Activity” which is sure to become a long-standing tradition.

This year’s Donovan Lectureship featured NIDA Director, Dr. Nora Volkow who spoke on “Groundbreaking Research Addressing the Challenges of the Opioid Epidemic.” And the 2024 ACMT Career Achievement Award went to Dr. Keith Burkhart who spoke about his long and illustrious career at the FDA. Other award recipients include:

2024 Best Original Research Platform Presentation Award
Joshua D. King, MD, FACMT, Assistant Professor of Medicine and
Pharmacy & Medical Director, Maryland Poison Control & University
of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
"Complications Limiting Use of Hemodialysis in Salicylate Deaths"

2024 Best Original Research Lightning Oral Presentation Award
Colleen Cowdery, MD, Fellow, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR
"Calcium Precipitation in Bedside Calcium Gel Mixing for Dermal Hydrofluoric Acid Exposure Treatment"

2024 ACMT Early Career Investigator Award
Christopher James Watson, MD, Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME
"N-Acetylcysteine Dosing Strategy and Duration of Therapy in Massive Acetaminophen Overdoses Treated Within Eight Hours"

2024 Best Original Research by a Fellow Award (inaugural award)
Mayank Gupta, MD, Fellow, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA
"Octreotide Administration Methods in Sulfonylurea Poisoning: A Retrospective Chart Review"

2024 Best Original Research Presented by a Student Award (inaugural award)
Kai Smollin, High School Student, The Bay School of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
"Will Artificial Intelligence Replace the Medical Toxicologist? Pediatric Referral Guidelines Generated by GPT-4"

ACMT would like to congratulate all of our award recipients, including this year’s cohort of FACMT inductees. You can read more about here.

Preceding the main conference, the AACT Symposium returned this year with the focus, “Antidote Shortages: Impact & Response” on Wednesday, April 10th, followed by the ACMT Symposium “Substance Use Disorder  in Adolescents & Young Adults” on Thursday, April 11th. Both symposia received very positive reviews and were heralded as timely in their choice of topics.

Thank you to all who participated in our 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting and Symposia. A special thank you to conference committee chair, Dr. Kathy Kopec, and the other members of this year’s planning committee. We would also like to acknowledge the important contribution of the Addiction Toxicology Committee in presenting the ACMT Symposium -- special thanks to Drs. Leslie Dye, Ashley Haynes, and Robert “Cole” Pueringer. None of this would be possible, of course, without Education Committee Chair, Dr. Diane Calello and Research Committee Chair, Dr. Maryann Amirshahi. 

We look forward to next year’s meeting which will be April 2-6, 2025  in Vancouver, Canada.