I had my first AADE podium presentation this Wednesday, and I was nervous yet excited. My presentation was called "Implementation of Diabetes Self-Management Education using Shared Medical Appointments in Primary Care for Adults."

The room was full of diabetes educators, advanced practice nurses, nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialisits, physicians, and physician assistants. I was pleased to learn there were several health care providers already providing shared medical appointments and the exchange of ideas was productive. Several attendees had very good ideas about how they overcome barriers in their practices. There are still a lot of unanswered questions on best practices; each practice is unique in regards to the patient population served and have different professional cultures. Individuals who shared their experiences have different insights into ways to conduct diabetes education.

I encourage those of you who have excellent ideas or programs in place to share your expertise. The annual AADE conference is about sharing and learning new ideas. Many times you might think that what you have to share is boring or of little interest, but the only way to find out is to submit an abstract for consideration. I encourage any educators who have ideas which could improve the delivery of patient care to participate in a podium presentation. I'm sure information about submitting abstracts for next year's meeting will be coming out soon. I'm already planning my next presentation!

Have you thought about submitting an abstract for a podium presentation? What are some of the barriers you face when considering abstract submission?