San Francisco is certainly in celebration mode thanks to the ‘mojo bunch of Giants following their convincing series win over the Tigers. The city also recently played host to the Society’s annual meeting on September 8 th at the beautiful and historic Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Nearly 220 members attended the half-day programming, which kicked off with a new member welcome and society update from outgoing President, Elizabeth Hermsen. Dr. Hermsen highlighted the contributions of committee members, award winners and new officers recently elected. A list of all committee members is available on the SIDP annual report. A special congratulations to our award recipients for 2011-2012: Clinician of the Year, Susan Davis, PharmD (Henry Ford Hospital); Young Investigator of the Year, Marc Scheetz,
PharmD, MSc (Midwestern University); Impact Paper of the Year, Kevin Garey, PharmD, MS (University of Houston, College of Pharmacy); Young Investigator Research Award, Elizabeth Hirsch, PharmD, BCPS
(Northeastern University). A new award has been established, sponsored by Cubist Pharmaceuticals®, in memory of Gita Wasan Patel, PharmD, BCPS, which will recognize the clinical pharmacist who has implemented and documented an innovative “best practice” in infectious diseases to improve patient care. A special congratulations also goes out to Noreen Chan Thompkins, PharmD and Scott Bergman,
PharmD, BCPS on receipt of ID Pharmacotherapy Residency Awards for 2012-2013 sponsored by Pfizer
Pharmaceuticals Inc. ® and Merck & Co., Inc., respectively. Dr. Hermsen announced our new agreement with CareFusion to support the Society website development and maintenance.
Newly elected officers began their new roles with the Society at the annual meeting headlined by new president Erika Ernst. Other newly elected members include Joe Kuti, President Elect; Doug Slain,
Secretary/Treasurer; and David Ritchie, Board Member at Large. Special appreciation was given to outgoing officers, Paul Gubbins, Libby Dodds-Ashley and Sharon Erdman whose many contributions to the success of SIDP are certain to continue. The meeting continued with engaging presentations on timely topics including a discussion of career transitions in infectious diseases (Darryl Depestel, Nimish
Patel and Andy Deryke); use of rapid diagnostics in antimicrobial stewardship (Debbie Goff). The programming concluded with a keynote presentation offered by Dr. Kavita Trivedi, sharing her thoughts as the coordinator for the California Antimicrobial Stewardship statewide initiative. We would like to thank our meeting sponsor, Astellas, and each of the exhibitors for contributing greatly to the continued success of the Society.