On October 19, thousands of infectious-disease professionals — including doctors, researchers, and medical students — will fill the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta for Infectious Disease Week.

The annual conference, which runs through October 22, comes at a challenging time for the medical and scientific community: Vaccine hesitancy continues to spread, grant funding dwindles, and the government publicizes false claims about Tylenol’s risks.

To understand how infectious-disease leaders in research and clinical care are working through this era, Business Insider will be on the ground for talks about public health strategy, healthcare innovation, and the future of careers in the field.

This year’s ID Week will center on themes like artificial intelligence in healthcare and biopreparedness for infectious disease outbreaks, Dr. Yohei Doi, an ID Week chair representing the Infectious Disease Society of America, told Business Insider.

“We have presenters who are experts in public health, and we’re looking forward to hearing their insights. I think public health has always been a theme, but it will be heavily featured this year,” Doi said ahead of the conference.

What to expect during ID Week

ID Week is a convergence of six professional organizations with different specialties: the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the HIV Medicine Association, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists.

“Get ready for a bunch of nerds,” Dr. Sophie Katz, a pediatric infectious-disease doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and an ID Week workshop presenter, told Business Insider.

“There are so many interesting talks to go to at once, so it’s hard to choose what to do,” Katz said. “It’s fun to be in an environment with all of these people, learning about all the things at the forefront of science for ID.”

At a pre-event media briefing, a selection of researchers teased their upcoming ID Week presentations, which will highlight study findings on topics like the benefits of RSV and shingles vaccines.

Doi said that the majority of attendees are medical doctors, with smaller yet growing subsets of pharmacists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants attending.

The conference — which offers more than 250 events over four days — features talks on topics like:

• Emerging infectious diseases
• Antimicrobial stewardship
• AI in healthcare
• Pediatric bacterial infections
• Prescription research and clinical best practices
• Sustainability and equity in infectious-disease treatment

The event is also a useful networking opportunity, especially for medical students, said Doi. For example, the ID Week BugCrawl program provides curated networking opportunities and lectures for students and residents. There’s also the NextGen ID Lounge, a space inside the Georgia World Congress Center where medical students, residents, and fellows can mingle and listen to career-oriented talks by more seasoned infectious-disease experts.

“It’s probably their first big meeting to attend, and it’s a huge venue, so we have sessions where we walk through the conference with them,” Doi said. “And they get to meet with the most prominent people in the field, and just sit with and talk with them about life, career, and the research they do.”

Additionally, there are scheduled receptions, meet-ups, and group dinners for a variety of professional organizations, like IDSA and PIDS.

An infectious disease conference in the mecca of US public health

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also located in Atlanta, makes the city “the mecca of public health in the US,” Doi told Business Insider.

He added that ID Week plans to feature insights from experts formerly affiliated with the CDC and current CDC workers, though their availability is subject to change.

“Obviously, there are evolving circumstances with the government shutdown, so we have to plan for that,” Doi said, “But we’re still hoping to leverage our location to the extent possible this time.”