VIRTUAL 2021 National Tuberculosis Conference Program Preview |
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The 2020 National TB Conference Planning Committee is pleased to announce this year's conference program. Sessions will be broadcast on Wednesdays and Fridays, June 9 to July 23, 2021.
The details on each session are provided below. Future e-newsletter issues will explore each session in greater detail.
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Week 1
Wed, June 9 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
Keynote: Reenergize, Restore, and Refocus
Moderators: Sarah Gordon, Pat Iyer
Presenter: David Hatem
This keynote session for the 2021 NTC is an opportunity for the TB community to reenergize, restore, refocus, and reset. 2020 and the start of 2021 have been challenging for all of us in the TB community. This session will share self-care techniques to deal with the grief and sense of loss we have all experienced over the last year and provide motivation and inspiration for embracing what is ahead.
Fri, June 11 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
TB in Special Populations Across the Lifespan
Moderators: Lisa Armitige, Kate O'Brien
Presenters: Kate O’Brien, Jyoti Mathad, Lisa Armitige, Michelle Haas, Masa Narita
This session will focus on TB in some of the most vulnerable and difficult to treat populations: pregnant women, neonates, children < 5 years of age, and the elderly. Presentations will provide a variety of perspectives from that of a TB survivor who was pregnant when diagnosed to unique challenges presented to clinicians and nurses by the incredibly young and older patient populations.
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Week 2
Wed, June 16 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
Integration in Care: TB Nursing as a Clinical Specialty
Moderators: Ann Scarpita, Maureen Murphy-Weiss
Presenters: Lana Dov, Pat Iyer, Nadya Sabuwala
This session will synthesize the fundamentals of nursing leadership, clinical knowledge, and critical thinking required for TB prevention and care.
Fri, June 18 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
Get Out of the House: Identifying & Preventing Transmission through Expanded Contact Investigations
Moderator: Shama Ahuja
Presenters: Shona Smith, Grace Hatt, Jenni Wheeler
This session will highlight best practices, challenges, and new techniques to successfully conduct a TB contact investigation in the context of local TB burden. Presentations will discuss utilizing local characteristics of TB transmission for public health intervention and challenges of large or multi-site investigations which include prioritizing, notifying, and evaluating contacts and working with multi-jurisdictional and external partners. Presentations will demonstrate how to apply whole genome sequencing analysis to guide investigation priorities using several outbreak examples.
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Week 3
Wed, June 23 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
Recalibrating: 25 Years Later! Current NAAT Utilization in TB Elimination Efforts
Moderator: Max Salfinger
Presenter: Angela Starks
Panelists: Heidi Behm, Julie Tans-Kersten, Susan Butler-Wu, Marie-Claire Rowlinson
Roundtable format
The nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) allows sensitive and specific results to be available within 48 hours. However, the diffusion into clinical and public health microbiology laboratories has been slow following the 1995 FDA approval and 2009 CDC guidance.
This session will provide an overview of the recommendations and the nationwide use of NAAT. After the overview, a panel representing TB control programs and TB laboratories will discuss the use of TB NAAT in their respective jurisdictions/institutions for diagnosing TB and ruling out TB. The panelists will also address barriers and how to overcome them to take advantage of this powerful method. Attendees will have ample opportunities to ask questions.
Fri, June 25 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
2021 NTCA Awards
Moderators: Sarah Gordon, Pete Dupree
This special conference session is highly anticipated by NTCA members and the larger TB community. The NTCA awards are an annual opportunity to acknowledge the dedication and commitment of our colleagues to a variety of areas essential to TB clinical, programmatic, and research activities. This 2021 awards session marks the 12th year of the NTCA awards.
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Week 4
Wed, June 30 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
Building Powerful Partnerships to Reach TB Elimination
Moderators: Tavia Mirassou-Wolf, Erin Laird
Presenters: Ann Scarpita , Kara Green, Tonia Ellison, Brenden Bedard, Daria Szkwarko
This session will delve into examples of innovative partnerships between public health, healthcare providers, and clinical systems to bolster TB screening, identification, treatment, and care of persons at risk for or who have TB infection. The session also will help identify and leverage shared tools and resources to guide strategic partnership development and implementation.
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Week 5
Wed, July 7 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
Hot Topics in TB Diagnostics
Moderator: Marie-Claire Rowlinson
Presenters: Kimberlee Musser, Morten Ruhwald, Claudio Köser
This session, developed in partnership with our APHL colleagues, will review the most recent advances in TB diagnostics and clinical care, including recently released statements from the World Health Organization (WHO). Advances in TB diagnostics to be discussed include the use of biomarkers (urine LAM test and other biomarkers currently being researched). In addition, with changes in treatment regimens as new drugs are introduced, the TB laboratory and clinical care must adapt to meet new drug susceptibility testing needs. This session will review some of the new diagnostics, drugs, and treatment regimens; what testing has been implemented in the laboratory; and how the laboratory results are incorporated into clinical care.
Fri, July 9 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
Poster Discussion Session
Moderators: Shama Ahuja, Diana Fortune
Following the successful virtual poster discussion session of the 2020 NTC, this session will provide a platform for the authors of the highly scored abstracts the opportunity to present a brief overview of the work outlined in their abstract. This session will provide all conference participants the opportunity to learn of the amazing and innovative work that is being done throughout the United States by TB program staff and partners.
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Week 6
Wed, July 14 | 12:00-2:00 pm ET
Tuberculosis and COVID-19: Clinical Impact
Moderators: Kathy Ritger, Jim Sunstrum
Presenters: Giovanni Battista Migliori, Ed Nardell , Jennifer Flood, Kathy Ritger, Jim Sunstrum
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all aspects of healthcare, and at times has overwhelmed clinical TB services. While masking, social distancing, and increased ventilation likely also reduce TB transmission, deferred health care and lack of focus on diseases other than COVID-19 may result in delayed TB diagnoses and worse outcomes. This session will address a few of the areas where TB and COVID-19 overlap, including a review of airborne pathogen transmission science, descriptions of TB/SARS-CoV-2 co-infection in selected locations in Europe and the United States, and reports of TB case-patients impacted by the COVID pandemic, and the challenges and lessons learned.
Fri, July 16 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
Tuberculosis and COVID–19: Impact on Programs and Services
Moderators: Jasie Hearn, Teresa Nowland
Presenters: Giovanni Battista Migliori, Julie Self, Sherrie Arnwine, Tara Ross, Denise Dunbar
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected TB programs domestically and globally and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. This session will examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB programmatic activities and services internationally as well as across the United States. Presentations will focus on the effects the pandemic has had on various aspects of a TB program including programmatic operations, laboratories, nursing case management, correctional facilities, and the epidemiology of TB.
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Week 7
Wed, July 23 | 3:00-5:00 pm ET
NTCA Survey Results: COVID-19 Impact on TB Programs and Services in the United States
Moderator: Jason Cummins
Presenter: Katelynne Gardner Toren
Town Hall format
This session will provide participants with an overview of the results of a recent NTCA survey aimed at assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB programs nationwide. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to discuss a variety of topics related to the impacts of COVID-19 on all aspects of a TB program in a structured town hall format.
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The registration fees for the Virtual 2021 NTC are listed below. This year, we've added a discounted fee for our retired colleagues and for students in any health-related program.
Participants:
- NTCA Member - $150.00
- NTCA Non-Member - $250.00
- Retirees or Students - $75.00
Conference registration fees can be paid by credit card, check, or ACH deposit.
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Exhibit and Sponsorship Information |
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The exhibit and sponsorship fees for the Virtual 2021 NTC are listed below.
Exhibitors:
- Virtual Exhibit Booth - $1,000
Sponsorships:
- Silver - $5,000
- Gold - $10,000
- Platinum - $15,000
If you are interested in learning more about the exhibit and sponsorship opportunities of the Virtual 2021 NTC, please email Donna Hope Wegener at dhwegener@tbcontrollers.org or call 678-503-0503.
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Continuing Education Credits |
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NTCA is partnering with the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine’s Office of Continuing Medical Education and Eastern New Mexico University to provide continuing education credits for the Virtual 2021 NTC.
Two hours of AMA PRA Category 1 Credits are available for each of the 11 educational sessions for a total of 22 continuing education hours for those participating in the entire conference!
In addition to credits for the live broadcast, these accredited providers have approved enduring materials credit. If you cannot attend a session on its original broadcast date, you still can earn credit by watching its video recording at a later date. Video recordings of the session will be available for enduring credits for up to a year.
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Abstracts are due Friday, May 7th
Acceptance notifications will be sent by Friday, May 14th
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