Known as the Mile High City, Denver is the perfect city to host the 2019 annual conference for integrated care where the sky is the limit. Denver is home to one of the most walkable downtowns in the nation, making it easy to visit countless restaurants, breweries, museums, and parks after a full day of conference activities. This year’s co-chairs are Randall Reitz, Lucy Graham, and Alex Hulst from Grand Junction, CO and Glenda Mutinda from Fort Worth, TX. We are counting down the days (21 to be exact) to welcome you to this beautiful, vibrant city!  

This year’s conference program will highlight some of the integrated care milestones that the state of Colorado has achieved over the last several decades, and we hope it will inspire you to pursue advocacy and policy changes that enable operational and financial support of integrated care teams in your home state. A sample of other topics you will see on the program agenda include:

• Workforce development to sustain integrated care teams,
• Technological and clinical innovations in chronic pain management,
• Addressing memory concerns of older adults in primary care,
• Psychiatric consultations in primary care, and
• Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT for substance use disorders.

Meeting up with old friends and making new connections is one of our favorite parts of each year’s conference. We hope that you will take advantage of the many opportunities to network with others who share your passion for collaborative care. Check out the agenda for more details, but a few key opportunities include the welcome reception, discussion groups, morning exercise sessions, poster sessions, special interest group (SIG) meetings, and speed consultation.

The conference will be held at the Sheraton Downtown Denver, which is located on the 16^th Street Mall, a mile-long collection of shopping and restaurants. Union Station, a restored train depot, is also about a 20 minute walk from the hotel and is home to delicious restaurants like Mercantile Dining and Provision and Ultreia. The Milk Market is also home to a mix of 16 delicious take-away and dine-in restaurants, and it’s about a 25 minute walk from the hotel. Other favorite restaurants in the area include La Loma, Urban Farmer, and Snooze.

Some more fun places to check out include the Denver Zoo (if you need to catch up on penguin drama), the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Center for Performing Arts (if you need to feel cultured), and the Thursday night Broncos game (if you need to let out some energy before being shushed in a conference room the next day). Red Rocks Amphitheater is a spectacular outdoor concert venue in Morrison, CO, about 10 miles from Denver if you are interested in music. If you’re feeling adventurous after conferencing and can put up with just a few more (non healthcare-related) acronyms, we recommend wandering through art galleries and shops in neighborhoods around Denver like RiNO and LoDo.

Looking for a chance to hike and enjoy some beautiful Colorado scenery? There are plenty of hikes within 30 minutes of Denver. If you are spending a little extra time in the Denver area, we highly recommend checking out some of our favorite hiking spots in Rocky Mountain National Park (about a two hour drive from Denver) such as The Loch and Emerald Lake. 

We hope you have safe travels to Denver. We can’t wait to see you there and celebrate all we have accomplished for our patients, families, and communities!