Greetings ASHT Colleagues and Friends!
It is with great hope and enthusiasm we plan to reconvene as a hand and upper extremity therapy community for this year’s 2021 Annual Meeting in St. Louis, MO. The previous year has seen many hardships, challenges and difficulties, but we as a community have held strong and continued our work as clinicians, educators, researchers and advocates. This year’s meeting will be a celebration of the survival spirit of our hand and upper extremity therapy community and the rich environment that St. Louis provides with experts in nerve surgery and diversity, equity and inclusion all local to the area.
Our meeting theme is Equity, Community and Excellence: Our Gateway to the Future. We have planned a quality program encompassing these ideals with a primary focus on keeping us current, inclusive and moving forward as we continue to negotiate challenging times. Our theme also includes a nod to our host city, St. Louis “the gateway to the west,” which houses world-renowned institutions and practitioners who highlight our program and will present their innovative work to better our practice and knowledge base.
This year's meeting has been specifically designed to allow you to choose the experience that best fits your needs, whether it be in-person or online. It will be held at the Marriott St. Louis Grand from
October 7-10, 2021. Pre-Conference Institutes are hands-on two-hour and four-hour sessions including Hands On Orthotics and cadaver nerve anatomy with a local hand surgeon and therapist. The opening night session will feature Dr. Susan Mackinnon, Dr. Chris Dy, Dr. Hollie Power and Lorna Kahn PT, CHT on a peripheral nerve update panel, followed by a session on brachial plexus outcomes with a hand surgeon, a PhD researcher, a hand therapist and a patient representative of the brachial plexus community.
Friday through Sunday sessions feature many clinical takeaway talks and physician-therapist combinations with fantastic plenary sessions mixed in that include our international speaker, Dr. Hollie Power from University of Alberta, who will present her work on timing of nerve transfers; our presidential invited speaker, Dr. William Ross from Washington University in St. Louis, who will speak on diversity, equity and inclusion as well as lead a panel on this topic; and Drs. Dy and Charles Goldfarb from Washington University who will present a traumatic injuries panel.
Our ASHT and hotel staff have gone above and beyond to ensure a safe, clean and healthy environment that includes hand sanitizing stations, socially distant seating and room cleaning between sessions.
We hope you join us live in St. Louis, but will offer a virtual hybrid option for those who are unable to attend in person.
On behalf of the 2021 Annual Committee, we hope to see you in St. Louis this fall and look forward to bringing our waving hands, open arms and proud voices together again!!!
Nora Barrett, MS, OTR/L, CHT, WCC
2021 ASHT Annual Meeting Chair