Print this pagePresident's Message
The New England Society for Vascular Surgery had its 36th Annual Meeting at the Seaport Hotel/World Trade Center in Boston from October 2 to October 4, 2009 and by all accounts, it was a great success. Boston is always a popular location and we had one of our highest registrations ever. This was our first meeting at the Seaport Hotel and the facilities were first rate. The meeting room was state of the art and very conducive to presentations and discussions.
The meeting was "kicked off" by the Postgraduate Course under the direction of Marc Schermerhorn, MD, an excellent program on Vascular Emergencies. The scientific sessions had a good variety of open and endovascular papers and there was an excellent session on basic science.
The meeting highlights included the Robert Linton Address on “Changing Perspectives In the Management of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms” given by Robert Rutherford, MD and the Distinguished Address on “Modifiable Risks For Aneurysm Progression: Updates From the Stanford SCCOR In AAA Disease” given by Ronald Dalman, MD of Stanford University Medical Center.
The Issues Panel, organized by Edward Marcaccio, MD, had a timely subject, “Perspectives In Healthcare Reform: The Experts Speak” with presentations and discussion by John Kingsdale, PhD, Executive Director of Health Connector from Boston, Massachusetts and James Mongan, MD, President and CEO of Partners Healthcare System.
Dr. Richard Cambria gave the Presidential Address on “R. Clement Darling, Jr., MD and the Evolution of Vascular Surgery” highlighting the role of one of Boston's finest vascular surgeons in the development of our specialty.
On Sunday morning, the session ended with the Pinehurst Panel where challenging cases were presented to Daniel Bertges, MD, Christopher Bulger, MD and Christopher Kwolek, MD. The panelists did a great job of handling these difficult cases. There was ample audience participation with an enthusiastic discussion.
The program had a number of excellent papers and the best of the best received recognition. The 2009 Deterling Award winner was Robert S. Crawford, MD of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA for his presentation on “Divergent Systemic and Local Inflammatory Response To Hind Limb Demand Ischemia In Wild Type and Hypercholesterolemic Mice.” The 2009 Darling Award Competition winner was Christopher J. Abularrage, MD, also of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA for his presentation on “Preoperative Anatomic Variables Are Predictive of Persistent Type 2 Endoleak After EVAR.” Our congratulations to both winners and their sponsors.
The society, as it has done for the past few years, sponsored the student and resident fellowship program. Fourteen students and residents from regional medical centers were given scholarship support to attend the meeting. It was a pleasure to meet these young students and residents. For those of us who had a chance to meet them, we see that there is a lot of interest in our specialty.
At our business meeting, we inducted 18 new members into the society and it appears our future is in good hands. Despite the travails of the stock market over the past year, our financial affairs are in good order. We also heard that papers from the NESVS have a high acceptance rate into the Journal of Vascular Surgery. The Executive Council welcomes the addition of Robert Patterson as Secretary and Steve Ruby as Vice President.
Finally, I would like to say that it is an honor and a pleasure for me to begin my term as president of the New England Society for Vascular Surgery. As always, our Annual Meeting is one of my favorite meetings and I know it is for many of you. I have always enjoyed the informal, friendly and collegial nature of this meeting. It is one of my goals to maintain this atmosphere in the future.
It is a pleasure for me to remind you that next year we will be meeting at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine (September 24-26, 2010). We are looking forward to another successful meeting and I hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Jens Eldrup-Jorgensen, MD