With attendance reaching a five-year high and setting a new record for medical student attendees, the energy level of the SIR 2017 Annual Scientific Meeting reached incredible heights. At a time of tremendous change—from the growth of the IR Residency to questions surrounding health care reimbursement—the society’s annual meeting proved a reliable constant of impactful research, valuable hands-on learning opportunities, and exciting new products and services from industry.
The society thanks the Annual Meeting Committee, faculty, volunteers, corporate supporters, attendees and all else who made the meeting such a historic success.
Here are some highlights from the research presented:
- Intranodal lymphangiography for thoracic duct embolization offers a safe alternative to surgical ligation for traumatic injury to the thoracic duct.
- The technology found in selfdriving cars can be used to power a machine learning application that helps guide patients’ IR care.
- UFE is vastly underutilized compared to hysterectomies, especially in rural and smaller hospitals.
- Prostate artery embolization reduces urinary tract symptoms for men with enlarged prostates and maintains its effectiveness for three years after patients undergo the therapy.
- A minimally invasive technique for migraine headaches used for adults may be a safe and effective treatment for children and teenagers.
The hands-on workshop program featured 71 different workshops on a wide range of timely topics. There were two types of workshops:
- Advanced procedural technique labs, faculty driven, focused on procedure-specific technical training
- Device training sessions, industry driven, offered attendees to see and test tools side by side.
SIR 2017 offered some exciting new opportunities as well:
- A day-long symposium on MACRA designed to help ease the transition from volume- to value-based reimbursement, was headlined by former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Read more.
- A special session based on the “hackathon” concept from the computer world showcased the creativity and collaboration skills of the IR world. Read more.
The SIR International Scholarship Program hosted 12 new scholars from Central America, South America, Africa, Europa and Asia. This program provides grants that enable physicians within 10 years of completion of training who are practicing outside North America an opportunity to attend the SIR Annual Scientific Meeting.
But these are just some of the SIR 2017 highlights—read all about it in this issue and on the digital version of the show daily, SIR Today, at sirtoday.org with more program highlights and Expo trends to come in the summer 2017 IRQ.
