Sarah Tomashefski, MSN, AGNP-C, FCCP, recalls feeling slightly intimidated the first time she arrived at a CHEST Annual Meeting.
It was in Toronto in 2017, the same year that she had become a nurse practitioner. “I remember walking into this huge building and looking up at the multiple floors where lectures were going on at the same time,” Tomashefski said. “I was totally overwhelmed.”
Fortunately, two collaborating pulmonary and critical care physicians from her division stuck by her during the meeting.
“They kind of took me under their wings. They told me: ‘OK, Sarah, this is how you need to plan out your day. Here’s this brochure that lists all the talks. Look through it the night before each meeting day, circle the lectures and events that are most meaningful to you, and try to attend a few, but don’t try to go without a break from 6 am to 8 pm or your brain will be mush,’” Tomashefski said. “They would meet me for lunch and sometimes for drinks afterward and taught me the ropes. It was such a cool experience because if I would have just gone by myself as a new provider, I would have been lost. Instead, I left feeling excited.”
Almost every year since, Tomashefski has attended the CHEST Annual Meeting with a group of colleagues, and she encourages others to coordinate a similar group experience for CHEST 2026, October 18 to 21 in Phoenix. Not only are group registration discounts available, but it’s a tremendous opportunity to combine professional development with transformative team building.
“The future of our field is very much focused on team-based care and multidisciplinary teams,” Tomashefski said. “I think CHEST has made a space for that, and some of my favorite memories of CHEST are of when I have attended with coworkers—from brand-new practitioners to the most experienced chief on our team. It’s great to learn together and support each other at these big conferences. Attending as a multidisciplinary team empowers your team and allows you to return home with a shared belief that you are going to continue to improve your practice and with a renewed commitment to the reasons and values behind what you are doing.”
She also credits her experience at CHEST Annual Meetings with opening doors for her own career and service, which now includes serving on the CHEST Scientific Program Committee and as President-Elect of the Association of Pulmonary Advanced Practice Providers.
Tomashefski had the following advice for colleagues considering group attendance at CHEST 2026:
1. Find what works best for your group
There is no one way to attend as a group, Tomashefski said. Sometimes her group closely coordinates their travel and which sessions they attend; other times, it is less coordinated. But her groups almost always made time to meet up for a team dinner, often attending the Welcome Reception together and then heading out to a restaurant reservation that includes team members as well as any spouses or partners who have traveled with them.
2. Plan ahead
Consider some group schedule coordination. You might want to take a divide-and-conquer approach when noteworthy sessions overlap, and you might want to select a few key sessions that all team members attend. Individually, you should look for sessions and events that speak to your interests and help grow your career.
3. Network
Look to grow cross-institutional professional connections by attending sessions or events targeting your peer group. For example, consider attending one of the Network Open Forums, the Network Mixer, an Interest Group luncheon, or the Cultures and Communities Reception.
4. Leave spare time
Allow for some downtime in your schedule to relax or to hold impromptu discussions. Tomashefski also recommended stopping by the Exhibit Hall to visit the booths. “I made my first connection with the Association of Pulmonary Advanced Practice Providers because they had a booth at CHEST and I walked up to it and asked what they were all about—years later, that led to me becoming their President-Elect,” she said.
5. Have fun
“Some institutions have built-in continuing medical educational credit days that people use to attend the meeting, but people are often using vacation days to attend CHEST when they could be lying on a beach in Florida—so you want it to be fun, your ‘CHEST-cation.’” Tomashefski said. “Our day-to-day jobs are serious and intense. We take care of people with severe diseases and it can weigh heavily on us. This is a chance to get away from our home institution, have fun, enjoy learning, and spend time with colleagues. It’s a chance to remember why we fell in love with our profession in the first place.”
Sharing the CHEST 2026 experience as a family
People often speak about finding their professional family at the CHEST Annual Meeting, but it’s more than a turn of phrase for Manavi Johri, MD.
Manavi, a third-year pulmonary and critical care fellow, will be joined at CHEST 2026 by not only her mother, Shilpa Johri, MD, FCCP, a longtime pulmonary hypertension (PH) specialist, but also her younger sister, Mohini Johri, who just completed her first year of medical school. Shilpa has attended the CHEST Annual Meeting for many years, and her daughters have tagged along—off and on—including in recent years when Manavi started presenting case report posters.
“People are always very entertained by the fact that there’s a Dr. Johri number one, and there’s a Dr. Johri number two, and there’s going to be a Dr. Johri number three,” Manavi said.
This year will be even more special for the Johris, as all three will be participating in the program for the first time. Mohini will make her debut as a CHEST presenter during a VTE case report poster session, and Manavi will present her own case report poster in a pulmonary arterial hypertension session, where Shilpa will also serve as a moderator.
Manavi practices at Bayonet Point Hospital/University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. Mohini studies at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. And Shilpa serves as Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Care Center and Clinical Research Division at Pulmonary Associates of Richmond.
“Everyone is always saying, ‘You’re going to follow in your mom’s footsteps,’ and in a way, I am,” Manavi said. “I went into the same specialty for a reason. I’d hoped to carry on the love for what she does, and I may or may not end up being a PH specialist, but it was her love for medicine that drew me to the field.”
Early experiences as her mother’s guest at annual meetings reinforced that feeling. Manavi recalls attending CHEST Annual Meetings during residency and feeling the thrill of discovery while sitting in lectures, walking around the Exhibit Hall, and even attempting her first bronchoscopy during a pig lung simulation.
“CHEST was always a place where people were very excited to teach others about their research and have panels to discuss the latest developments in the field,” she said. “And it was just fun. The atmosphere is hard to beat!”
Now Manavi gets to help introduce her sister to the full CHEST Annual Meeting experience.
“You can’t have a family full of doctors and not be a little bit on the nerdy side,” she said. “So I think we’re all just excited to learn, and it’s even more meaningful that we get to share that experience together.”
Join Us at CHEST 2026
Connect in person with influential clinicians from around the world—and attend top-tier educational sessions focusing on the most relevant clinical topics. CHEST 2026 will have it all, including optional add-on sessions to customize your learning. Reserve your spot by October 5 to save $100 with advance registration pricing.
