Chair Preparation Information (All Session Types)

Chairs and Co-Chairs play an essential role in maintaining the educational focus of the Society's Annual Scientific Sessions in addition to keeping the sessions flowing smoothly and on schedule.

As a Session Chair, you will be provided access to the Heart Rhythm 2012 Faculty Itinerary Site to review and prepare for the session(s). The Confirmed Faculty Itinerary Site contains information about the session(s) as well as contact and disclosure information for the session faculty/presenters.

The Session Chair is to review the following: 

• Session Information
• Financial Disclosures
• Conflict of Interest Statement

These documents will be provided by the session faculty/presenters prior to Heart Rhythm 2012. Please contact the team leader or designee if conflict of interest issues exist that require modification to the program or faculty.

During the session, the Chair is to prompt for, and monitor, disclosure compliance from the faculty/presenters. You will be asked in the On Site Chair’s Report if faculty/presenters provided disclosure information and if there were occurrences of conflict of interest and/or bias in a session presentation. The report will be available in your session room.

Chairing Oral Abstract Presentations

In addition to the tasks mentioned above, for each presentation, announce the abstract title, name of the presenter (and other investigators), the institution(s), and the city and state/country where the research was performed. This information is available in the Final Program Book.

Chairs are responsible for reporting conflict of interest found in presentations, helping attendees understand the relationship between the presentations (if any), and ensuring the session runs smoothly.

Session Time Length: 90-minutes
Participant Information: 2 Chairs; 6 Abstract Presenters

• The Chair(s) must announce the abstract title, name of the presenter (and other investigators), the institution(s), and the city and state/country where the research was performed for each presentation. (This information is available in the Final Program Book.)
• The chairs will give a five minutes introduction/overview of what attendees will learn from the session.
• Each abstract presenter is allotted 15 minutes of presentation time. Presenters must not go over the allotted time.
• "No Shows" — If a presenter fails to appear, take a 1–2 minute break to ensure the session stays on schedule with the printed Final Program Book. In addition, please be sure to note the name of the presenter on the Chair Report.
• At the end of the session, there is a 5-minute Q & A conducted by the Chairs.

Moderated Poster Session (Moderator)

Moderated Poster sessions are new poster sessions that were introduced last year at Heart Rhythm 2009 to enhance the poster session experience. Moderated poster sessions will be held in the "Poster Theater" section of Poster Town located in the Exhibit Hall.

Each moderated poster session has a required start and end time. Moderators are responsible for reporting conflict of interest found in presentations, helping attendees understand the relationship between the presentations (if any), and ensuring the session runs smoothly.

Session Time Length: 1 hour
Participant Information: 1 Moderator; 5 Moderated Poster Presenters

• The Moderator must announce the abstract title, name of the presenter (and other investigators), the institution(s), and the city and state/country where the research was performed for each presentation. (This information is available in the Final Program Book).
• The Moderator will give a 5-minute introduction/overview of what attendees will learn from the session.
• Each moderated poster presenter is allotted ten minutes of presentation time. At the end of each presentation, the moderator has 1-2 minutes to answer any questions, or to ask the presenter to elaborate on a specific finding in his/her research.
• "No Shows" — If a presenter fails to appear, take a 10-minute break to ensure the session stays on schedule with the printed Final Program Book.
• At the end of the session, there is a 5-minute Q & A conducted by the expert Moderator to address attendee questions.