A block party on opening day, session recordings available daily and—of course—the educational and scientific sessions for which the Society for Vascular Surgery’s Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) is known: all this and much more will be part of VAM 2023.
The premiere educational event of the vascular world will be June 14 to 17 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.
Educational sessions and abstract-based plenaries will take place across all four days, ending at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The Annual Business Meeting will follow, from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. and will mark the official close of the meeting.
The VAM Exhibit Hall, featuring the best products and services industry has to offer, will be open June 15 and 16. And people who love a party should be sure to purchase tickets soon for the SVS Foundation’s premier event, the “Great Gatsby Gala,” set for the evening of Friday, June 16.
VAM will feature not only the latest scientific research but also educational sessions with topics for all career stages, from tips for young surgeons to financial planning for surgeons preparing to retire. With receptions and dinners—not to mention chance meetings in the hallways and hotel—there will be plenty of opportunities to converse with friends and colleagues old and new.
People will need to be on site to experience it all. With substantial winding down of COVID-19 and the availability of vaccines, no live-streaming (with the exception of the Vascular Quality Initiative’s VQI@VAM) will be offered this year. However, all sessions will be recorded and available to registrants during the week of VAM. These recordings will be available for three years post-meeting, so attendees have plenty of time to catch any sessions they may have missed on-site or give a presentation additional review.
Members previously have sought this quick access to session recordings and planners expect this change to be a big hit.
In conjunction with SVS welcoming attendees and their families to VAM and National Harbor, the Society will hold its first annual Block Party Wednesday evening. This is a ticketed event; more information will be available at the VAM registration site. Other family-friendly activities and features, such as resources for nursing mothers, also are in the works.
As in years past, both the SVS Patient Safety Organization Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) and the Society for Vascular Nursing (SVN) annual meetings will convene in collaboration with VAM.
VQI@VAM will be held the afternoon of Tuesday, June 13, followed by an early-evening reception and poster presentation, and all day Wednesday, June 14. This meeting will be live-streamed for those who cannot attend in person and recorded for registrants.
The SVN’s 41st Annual Conference will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, with its Presidential Luncheon, including awards presentations on Wednesday and a Welcome Reception Wednesday evening. This meeting will not be live-streamed, but all sessions will be recorded and available starting the week of the meeting for up to three years post-meeting.
To take advantage of National Harbor’s proximity to the country’s seat of government, a trip to Capitol Hill is planned, as are two sessions on the importance of advocacy and how advocacy impacts vascular surgeons’ lives and livelihoods.
In the wake of the completion of the BEST-CLI (Best endovascular versus best surgical therapy for patients with CLTI) clinical trial, the Planning Committee has slated a session on outcomes and what comes next.
The United Kingdom’s BASIL-2 clinical trial—which is investigating outcomes of bypass versus angioplasty in severe ischemia of the leg—will be discussed at the same 90-minute session. Trial investigators will summarize key findings of each. The presentation also will include a debate on appropriate therapies plus discussion of implementing recommendations from both trials.
The SVS introduces the new Frank J. Veith Distinguished Lecture, announced at VAM 2022, this year. It, too, will cover BEST-CLI.
Learn more about VAM at the VAM website, vascular.org/VAM. And be sure to circle March 15 on the calendar—and prepare for early-bird tickets.
This article originally appeared in Vascular Specialist on February 15, 2023. You can view the article on their website here.