2025 CHEST Conference Highlights (Podcast)

Following the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) 2025 annual conference, Cleveland Clinic pulmonologists, Peter Mazzone, MD, MPH; Angel Coz-Yataco, MD; and Matt Siuba, DO, sat down to discuss their biggest takeaways from the conference on a recent episode of the Respiratory Exchange podcast.

Beyond their work at Cleveland Clinic, all three hold positions within the CHEST organization and publication — Dr. Mazzone is Editor in Chief of the CHEST journal; Dr. Coz is the outgoing Editor in Chief of CHEST Physician, current vice chair of the Guidelines Oversight Committee and a member of the Board of Regents; and Dr. Siuba is a journal podcast moderator for the CHEST journal and also part of the Sepsis and Shock Committee.

In the episode, the group discussed some of their favorite sessions, topic trends they saw at the conference and their favorite experiences outside of sessions.

“I think this was a great conference this year,” says Dr. Siuba. “One session that I think was very informative and really practically useful that I went to was there was a session on care of the morbidly obese patient in the ICU. And actually, one of our colleagues, Eduardo Mireles, was part of that session and talked about mechanical ventilation in the morbidly obese patient.”

“[One] session that I liked a lot, I was part of that session, but that's probably my least favorite part, was a session in which we talked about the upcoming hemodynamic guidelines in sepsis management,” says Dr. Coz. “We are working on that guideline right now. Probably it might be released in about a year, maybe. Hopefully, we'll be ready for publication for the next annual meeting. But we reviewed a lot of the, we couldn't talk about the PICO question specifically, but we talked about evidence that we identified as we are developing these guidelines.”

In addition to recapping their favorite sessions, the group also discusses:

• Emerging trends emphasized during the conference
• The scope and potential of AI
• The value of society conferences for professional development, networking and mentorship
• Practical clinical advances for challenging patient populations

Click the podcast player above to listen to the episode now, or read on for a short, edited excerpt. Check out more Respiratory Exchange episodes at https://my.clevelandclinic.org/podcasts/respiratory-exchange or wherever you get your podcasts.

Excerpt from the podcast

Peter Mazzone, MD, MPH: I think it was exciting to see all of the advances. There was an energy in the meeting…it wasn't just what you were used to. Bronchodilator for this and that, but true progress in areas that have been difficult to crack - refractory COPD, IPF progressing on a decade-old drug. So this was an exciting time to be part of this meeting for sure.

Now, Matt, one topic that we hear at every single meeting, and almost walking down the hall, you hear all the time is AI and AI developments and that. Did you see any sessions that introduced topics related to AI at all?

Matt Siuba, DO: Yeah, it's funny. I don't think that I specifically attended any sessions that were [specifically] this is AI and critical care, or AI and pulmonary, like you would've seen maybe in the past. What's interesting is it was kind of prevalent enough that it has infiltrated into all these different areas. It's just a part of the landscape of research and innovation in these fields. So instead of going to AI and critical care, it would be a talk on acute kidney injury, and AI is part of the talk just because it's part of the research landscape right now. So, it's kind of pervaded throughout all these different areas instead of just being a standalone talk like it used to be.

Peter Mazzone, MD, MPH: It's fascinating to see how various things enter the conversations year over year and what really dominates. And this year, I'd have to say it was AI. Anything else from the AI standpoint that you were exposed to, Angel?

Angel Coz-Yataco, MD: Yeah, I know that, as Matt said, as opposed to having specific sessions on AI, there was a big incentive or a call for the people who wrote sessions, who submitted sessions to incorporate some elements of AI in their talk. I'm aware of a session in sleep medicine, which I don't really know much about, but that had some elements of AI incorporated into it.

I’m aware there was a session specifically on AI, but I had a conflict with one of my sessions, so I couldn't attend. And also, one thing that I saw that was very interesting, which I think is something that is very useful for early career or fellows, executive fellowship, there was a session led by some of the members of our finance committee on how to understand your finances, and also how to negotiate your first contract.

So, I don't know if employers are going to be too happy about that, but that is something that I think is a skill that we don't learn in medical school, for sure, or during training. And as we are ready to leave the doors of our training place, we absolutely have no clue. And this is something that started, I think, a couple of years ago, but because of how popular it was, it’s becoming more and more well attended.

Peter Mazzone, MD, MPH: The meeting has always paid particular attention to the junior members of our community and found ways to make them feel welcome and provide them with very practical tips. So, it's nice to hear that that's really continuing.