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Welcome to the 2016 VEITHsymposium
Welcome to the 43rd annual Vascular & Endovascular, Issues, Techniques and Horizons Symposium (VEITHsymposium). This year’s program promises to be one of the best, most comprehensive, and most thought-provoking of any of our meetings. This year we celebrate our 43rd anniversary and have introduced several improvements.
Nearly 600 international clinician/educators have gathered to provide attendees with the latest topics and advances that are important to the global vascular community. These data span the breadth of vascular diseases, diagnostic procedures, medical treatments, interventional procedures and open surgical advances for treating vascular disease. As is the hallmark of the VEITHsymposium, the 5-day program will run from dawn to dusk daily and will be fully captured in our online library.
Top vascular experts from around the world will provide updates on the latest clinical trials and offer insight into the real-life application of the most recent data to close the gap between the current state of knowledge and actual clinical practice.
Controversial issues will be approached from multiple perspectives to ensure a balanced, unbiased exposure of topics and to provide audience members with the information they need to make informed choices in their own practices.
This year our meeting continues its increased emphasis on venous disease. Three full days of the meeting are developments in venous disease of all sorts and active endovascular treatments in this rapidly expanding area of opportunity.
Some of the program’s other hot topics will be the continuing controversies surrounding parallel grafts (chimneys, and snorkel and sandwich grafts); multilayer open stents versus fenestrated and branched endografts; new developments in carotid stenting; new developments in the treatment of aortic dissections; a day devoted to the management of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs); new developments in the endovascular treatment of lower-extremity ischemia, particularly below the knee; the latest developments in EVAR and TEVAR including experiences with a plethora of new endovascular grafts and devices that have appeared on the scene in the last year; and improvements in the medical treatment of vascular disease and vascular patients undergoing surgery and other interventions. Important issues to vascular specialists and outpatient vascular treatment will also be highlighted.
This year’s program will include a special session all-day Tuesday, focused in the morning on management options for pulmonary embolism led by Dr. Michael R. Jaff. The afternoon part of the day will focus on new developments in the management of acute and chronic large vein occlusion, and will be led by Dr. Kenneth Ouriel.
This year there will also be sessions devoted to crucial issues for vascular specialists including changing relationships with government and the FDA and how to survive under new reimbursement rules and regulations including Obamacare. Our physician/educators will also offer a glimpse into some new techniques and technologies that have been available overseas, but are just gaining approval in the United States, such as drug-eluting balloons and stents.
Attendees will notice some other exciting changes or additions to this year’s program. We have included a new Job Fair Program on Friday in the Americas Hall 1 on the 3rd floor. In addition, there will be more breaks in the schedule to encourage exploration of state-of-the-art technology, products, and services available in the Exhibit areas and Pavilions. The Exhibit Halls are crowded with displays and booths of particular interest to vascular surgeons and vascular specialists. The Pavilions and Exhibits also offer attendees the chance to meet faculty and to network with other attendees and industry partners. This is one place to learn more about exciting new technologies and developments in our field.
Other new additions to our meeting this year will be an exciting Abbott Pavilion in the Americas Hall as well as an expanded Innovations and Investment Summit which facilitates interaction between innovators, industry and investors. This non-CME Session will be held from 8 AM to 3 PM on Thursday, November 17th in the Gramercy Suites on the 2nd floor, and will be led by Kenneth Ouriel, Jean Bismuth and Chris Cheng.
Also new this year will be an expanded VEITHsymposium mobile app, provided courtesy of Cook Medical. Download the app for your iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet! Search the App Store (iPhone/iPad) or Google Play Store (Android) for “VEITHsymposium 2016” and install the app. You will be able to access the complete program, create your personal program, add your notes, view the location of sessions and exhibitors on the floor plan, and much more. After you have installed the app and opened it for the first time, you can continue to use it offline. To receive the latest updates and announcements, you will need to be connected to the internet.
In addition, there will be expanded Associate Faculty programs which will give younger and less well-known vascular specialists the opportunity to present their work at the podium with leading experts as session moderators.
Again this year, an Online Library will be available for a minimal fee of $75 for clinical meeting attendees and will include access to talks, slides, videos, and panels from the meeting. This Library will enable all attendees to see and hear key presentations they may miss because of the concurrent sessions or other reasons. This library will be available 10-14 days after the meeting. Attendees should note in their program talks they wish to hear but could not, and then revisit the missed talks on the Online Library which is indexed exactly to the program. The talks are also indexed in the Library by presenter, topic, or session. This Library is a great resource for study, research or review for any purpose.
On behalf of all the meeting Co-Chairmen and our entire staff, we greatly appreciate you coming to our meeting. We hope it is our best meeting ever and that you find it educational, most useful and exciting so that you return next year.
Welcome to the 43rd annual Vascular & Endovascular, Issues, Techniques and Horizons Symposium (VEITHsymposium). This year’s program promises to be one of the best, most comprehensive, and most thought-provoking of any of our meetings. This year we celebrate our 43rd anniversary and have introduced several improvements.
Nearly 600 international clinician/educators have gathered to provide attendees with the latest topics and advances that are important to the global vascular community. These data span the breadth of vascular diseases, diagnostic procedures, medical treatments, interventional procedures and open surgical advances for treating vascular disease. As is the hallmark of the VEITHsymposium, the 5-day program will run from dawn to dusk daily and will be fully captured in our online library.
Top vascular experts from around the world will provide updates on the latest clinical trials and offer insight into the real-life application of the most recent data to close the gap between the current state of knowledge and actual clinical practice.
Controversial issues will be approached from multiple perspectives to ensure a balanced, unbiased exposure of topics and to provide audience members with the information they need to make informed choices in their own practices.
This year our meeting continues its increased emphasis on venous disease. Three full days of the meeting are developments in venous disease of all sorts and active endovascular treatments in this rapidly expanding area of opportunity.
Some of the program’s other hot topics will be the continuing controversies surrounding parallel grafts (chimneys, and snorkel and sandwich grafts); multilayer open stents versus fenestrated and branched endografts; new developments in carotid stenting; new developments in the treatment of aortic dissections; a day devoted to the management of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs); new developments in the endovascular treatment of lower-extremity ischemia, particularly below the knee; the latest developments in EVAR and TEVAR including experiences with a plethora of new endovascular grafts and devices that have appeared on the scene in the last year; and improvements in the medical treatment of vascular disease and vascular patients undergoing surgery and other interventions. Important issues to vascular specialists and outpatient vascular treatment will also be highlighted.
This year’s program will include a special session all-day Tuesday, focused in the morning on management options for pulmonary embolism led by Dr. Michael R. Jaff. The afternoon part of the day will focus on new developments in the management of acute and chronic large vein occlusion, and will be led by Dr. Kenneth Ouriel.
This year there will also be sessions devoted to crucial issues for vascular specialists including changing relationships with government and the FDA and how to survive under new reimbursement rules and regulations including Obamacare. Our physician/educators will also offer a glimpse into some new techniques and technologies that have been available overseas, but are just gaining approval in the United States, such as drug-eluting balloons and stents.
Attendees will notice some other exciting changes or additions to this year’s program. We have included a new Job Fair Program on Friday in the Americas Hall 1 on the 3rd floor. In addition, there will be more breaks in the schedule to encourage exploration of state-of-the-art technology, products, and services available in the Exhibit areas and Pavilions. The Exhibit Halls are crowded with displays and booths of particular interest to vascular surgeons and vascular specialists. The Pavilions and Exhibits also offer attendees the chance to meet faculty and to network with other attendees and industry partners. This is one place to learn more about exciting new technologies and developments in our field.
Other new additions to our meeting this year will be an exciting Abbott Pavilion in the Americas Hall as well as an expanded Innovations and Investment Summit which facilitates interaction between innovators, industry and investors. This non-CME Session will be held from 8 AM to 3 PM on Thursday, November 17th in the Gramercy Suites on the 2nd floor, and will be led by Kenneth Ouriel, Jean Bismuth and Chris Cheng.
Also new this year will be an expanded VEITHsymposium mobile app, provided courtesy of Cook Medical. Download the app for your iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet! Search the App Store (iPhone/iPad) or Google Play Store (Android) for “VEITHsymposium 2016” and install the app. You will be able to access the complete program, create your personal program, add your notes, view the location of sessions and exhibitors on the floor plan, and much more. After you have installed the app and opened it for the first time, you can continue to use it offline. To receive the latest updates and announcements, you will need to be connected to the internet.
In addition, there will be expanded Associate Faculty programs which will give younger and less well-known vascular specialists the opportunity to present their work at the podium with leading experts as session moderators.
Again this year, an Online Library will be available for a minimal fee of $75 for clinical meeting attendees and will include access to talks, slides, videos, and panels from the meeting. This Library will enable all attendees to see and hear key presentations they may miss because of the concurrent sessions or other reasons. This library will be available 10-14 days after the meeting. Attendees should note in their program talks they wish to hear but could not, and then revisit the missed talks on the Online Library which is indexed exactly to the program. The talks are also indexed in the Library by presenter, topic, or session. This Library is a great resource for study, research or review for any purpose.
On behalf of all the meeting Co-Chairmen and our entire staff, we greatly appreciate you coming to our meeting. We hope it is our best meeting ever and that you find it educational, most useful and exciting so that you return next year.
Welcome to the 43rd annual Vascular & Endovascular, Issues, Techniques and Horizons Symposium (VEITHsymposium). This year’s program promises to be one of the best, most comprehensive, and most thought-provoking of any of our meetings. This year we celebrate our 43rd anniversary and have introduced several improvements.
Nearly 600 international clinician/educators have gathered to provide attendees with the latest topics and advances that are important to the global vascular community. These data span the breadth of vascular diseases, diagnostic procedures, medical treatments, interventional procedures and open surgical advances for treating vascular disease. As is the hallmark of the VEITHsymposium, the 5-day program will run from dawn to dusk daily and will be fully captured in our online library.
Top vascular experts from around the world will provide updates on the latest clinical trials and offer insight into the real-life application of the most recent data to close the gap between the current state of knowledge and actual clinical practice.
Controversial issues will be approached from multiple perspectives to ensure a balanced, unbiased exposure of topics and to provide audience members with the information they need to make informed choices in their own practices.
This year our meeting continues its increased emphasis on venous disease. Three full days of the meeting are developments in venous disease of all sorts and active endovascular treatments in this rapidly expanding area of opportunity.
Some of the program’s other hot topics will be the continuing controversies surrounding parallel grafts (chimneys, and snorkel and sandwich grafts); multilayer open stents versus fenestrated and branched endografts; new developments in carotid stenting; new developments in the treatment of aortic dissections; a day devoted to the management of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs); new developments in the endovascular treatment of lower-extremity ischemia, particularly below the knee; the latest developments in EVAR and TEVAR including experiences with a plethora of new endovascular grafts and devices that have appeared on the scene in the last year; and improvements in the medical treatment of vascular disease and vascular patients undergoing surgery and other interventions. Important issues to vascular specialists and outpatient vascular treatment will also be highlighted.
This year’s program will include a special session all-day Tuesday, focused in the morning on management options for pulmonary embolism led by Dr. Michael R. Jaff. The afternoon part of the day will focus on new developments in the management of acute and chronic large vein occlusion, and will be led by Dr. Kenneth Ouriel.
This year there will also be sessions devoted to crucial issues for vascular specialists including changing relationships with government and the FDA and how to survive under new reimbursement rules and regulations including Obamacare. Our physician/educators will also offer a glimpse into some new techniques and technologies that have been available overseas, but are just gaining approval in the United States, such as drug-eluting balloons and stents.
Attendees will notice some other exciting changes or additions to this year’s program. We have included a new Job Fair Program on Friday in the Americas Hall 1 on the 3rd floor. In addition, there will be more breaks in the schedule to encourage exploration of state-of-the-art technology, products, and services available in the Exhibit areas and Pavilions. The Exhibit Halls are crowded with displays and booths of particular interest to vascular surgeons and vascular specialists. The Pavilions and Exhibits also offer attendees the chance to meet faculty and to network with other attendees and industry partners. This is one place to learn more about exciting new technologies and developments in our field.
Other new additions to our meeting this year will be an exciting Abbott Pavilion in the Americas Hall as well as an expanded Innovations and Investment Summit which facilitates interaction between innovators, industry and investors. This non-CME Session will be held from 8 AM to 3 PM on Thursday, November 17th in the Gramercy Suites on the 2nd floor, and will be led by Kenneth Ouriel, Jean Bismuth and Chris Cheng.
Also new this year will be an expanded VEITHsymposium mobile app, provided courtesy of Cook Medical. Download the app for your iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet! Search the App Store (iPhone/iPad) or Google Play Store (Android) for “VEITHsymposium 2016” and install the app. You will be able to access the complete program, create your personal program, add your notes, view the location of sessions and exhibitors on the floor plan, and much more. After you have installed the app and opened it for the first time, you can continue to use it offline. To receive the latest updates and announcements, you will need to be connected to the internet.
In addition, there will be expanded Associate Faculty programs which will give younger and less well-known vascular specialists the opportunity to present their work at the podium with leading experts as session moderators.
Again this year, an Online Library will be available for a minimal fee of $75 for clinical meeting attendees and will include access to talks, slides, videos, and panels from the meeting. This Library will enable all attendees to see and hear key presentations they may miss because of the concurrent sessions or other reasons. This library will be available 10-14 days after the meeting. Attendees should note in their program talks they wish to hear but could not, and then revisit the missed talks on the Online Library which is indexed exactly to the program. The talks are also indexed in the Library by presenter, topic, or session. This Library is a great resource for study, research or review for any purpose.
On behalf of all the meeting Co-Chairmen and our entire staff, we greatly appreciate you coming to our meeting. We hope it is our best meeting ever and that you find it educational, most useful and exciting so that you return next year.
Primary Care Physicians Don't Get Patients Well
(Editor's Note: Read Dr. George Andros' introduction to this installment of Veith's Viewpoint.)
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has the laudable goals of extending health care insurance coverage and reducing overall health care costs. However, hidden in the more than 2400 pages of this bill are a number of provisions, many still unrecognized, which will have detrimental effects on our national economy and the quality of care our health system delivers to society.
One such damaging initiative within the ACA is the thrust to increase the reimbursement for primary care providers and to compensate for this increase by decreasing reimbursement to specialty care providers. Is this a good thing?
Yes, we will need more primary care physicians to do what they do for our increasingly elderly population. The ACA will provide a financial incentive to increase the numbers of such physicians. And yes, health care costs are spiraling upward, and part of this spiral is due to the over-utilization of coronary, carotid and lower extremity stents and other procedures in patients who are not benefited by them or who are actually harmed by them.
Such over-utilization was recently documented in the lead article on the front page of the New York Times (August 7, 2012). This over-utilization of specialty care may be diminished somewhat if the guilty specialists receive less compensation per case.
However, the decreased specialist reimbursement may also have the paradoxical effect of prompting the unethical specialists to do even more unnecessary cases to maintain their incomes. There should be better, more direct ways to stop unnecessary procedures than shifting specialist reimbursement to primary care physicians.
Restoring ethical behavior to physicians and considering how best to modify the reimbursement system to be a disincentive to such bad practices are beyond the scope of this commentary. However, we should examine more carefully the negative effects and unintended consequences of shifting specialist reimbursement to primary care providers.
To do this we have to examine the question: "Who today gets patients who are really sick with an organic problem well?"
It is not primary care physicians. They play valuable roles in preventive medicine, in providing simple care, in comforting and reassuring patients while their self-limited disease runs its course, in recognizing serious illness, and in directing patients to appropriate specialists when needed.
Many of these functions, although very valuable and necessary, could be fulfilled by a trained nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant and do not require a highly paid primary care physician.
On the other hand, in today’s high tech and complicated medical world, it is the highly trained medical specialist who gets patients well when they have a serious life- or limb-threatening illness. Such skilled specialists can place a coronary stent to prevent or treat an otherwise fatal or disabling myocardial infarction.
Other specialists can ablate a focus of an otherwise fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Still others can exclude an aortic aneurysm before or after it ruptures, or revascularize and save a severely ischemic limb. Other specialists can remove a variety of cancers, reconstruct a destroyed hip or fix other serious problems within the head, chest, abdomen or other parts of the body.
These skilled specialists have to work hard and devote years and long hours to be trained and to maintain their skills. They have to be available 24/7 to provide emergency treatment when minutes and hours make a difference, and they have to take the risks of failure including exposure to medical liability. For these skills, risks and their commitment, they deserve to be highly compensated in keeping with other professions that have similar requirements.
If reimbursement to such specialists is diminished, clearly the level of care that they provide – the care that really makes a difference to patients – will also be diminished. We will be sacrificing the geese that lay the golden eggs of medicine in the U. S. today, and health care will suffer.
This unintended consequence of diminished specialist reimbursement has occurred in other countries where specialists are underpaid.
Thus, as we go about the difficult task of reforming our health care system, decreasing unnecessary procedures and cutting overall costs, we must be sure to preserve what is great about our system and some of the exemplary care it provides. Most of this care is delivered by specialists, and we must be careful to continue to motivate them appropriately.
Dr. Veith is Professor of Surgery at New York University Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. He is an associate medical editor for Vascular Specialist.
The ideas and opinions expressed in Vascular Specialist do not necessarily reflect those of the Society or Publisher.
(Editor's Note: Read Dr. George Andros' introduction to this installment of Veith's Viewpoint.)
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has the laudable goals of extending health care insurance coverage and reducing overall health care costs. However, hidden in the more than 2400 pages of this bill are a number of provisions, many still unrecognized, which will have detrimental effects on our national economy and the quality of care our health system delivers to society.
One such damaging initiative within the ACA is the thrust to increase the reimbursement for primary care providers and to compensate for this increase by decreasing reimbursement to specialty care providers. Is this a good thing?
Yes, we will need more primary care physicians to do what they do for our increasingly elderly population. The ACA will provide a financial incentive to increase the numbers of such physicians. And yes, health care costs are spiraling upward, and part of this spiral is due to the over-utilization of coronary, carotid and lower extremity stents and other procedures in patients who are not benefited by them or who are actually harmed by them.
Such over-utilization was recently documented in the lead article on the front page of the New York Times (August 7, 2012). This over-utilization of specialty care may be diminished somewhat if the guilty specialists receive less compensation per case.
However, the decreased specialist reimbursement may also have the paradoxical effect of prompting the unethical specialists to do even more unnecessary cases to maintain their incomes. There should be better, more direct ways to stop unnecessary procedures than shifting specialist reimbursement to primary care physicians.
Restoring ethical behavior to physicians and considering how best to modify the reimbursement system to be a disincentive to such bad practices are beyond the scope of this commentary. However, we should examine more carefully the negative effects and unintended consequences of shifting specialist reimbursement to primary care providers.
To do this we have to examine the question: "Who today gets patients who are really sick with an organic problem well?"
It is not primary care physicians. They play valuable roles in preventive medicine, in providing simple care, in comforting and reassuring patients while their self-limited disease runs its course, in recognizing serious illness, and in directing patients to appropriate specialists when needed.
Many of these functions, although very valuable and necessary, could be fulfilled by a trained nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant and do not require a highly paid primary care physician.
On the other hand, in today’s high tech and complicated medical world, it is the highly trained medical specialist who gets patients well when they have a serious life- or limb-threatening illness. Such skilled specialists can place a coronary stent to prevent or treat an otherwise fatal or disabling myocardial infarction.
Other specialists can ablate a focus of an otherwise fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Still others can exclude an aortic aneurysm before or after it ruptures, or revascularize and save a severely ischemic limb. Other specialists can remove a variety of cancers, reconstruct a destroyed hip or fix other serious problems within the head, chest, abdomen or other parts of the body.
These skilled specialists have to work hard and devote years and long hours to be trained and to maintain their skills. They have to be available 24/7 to provide emergency treatment when minutes and hours make a difference, and they have to take the risks of failure including exposure to medical liability. For these skills, risks and their commitment, they deserve to be highly compensated in keeping with other professions that have similar requirements.
If reimbursement to such specialists is diminished, clearly the level of care that they provide – the care that really makes a difference to patients – will also be diminished. We will be sacrificing the geese that lay the golden eggs of medicine in the U. S. today, and health care will suffer.
This unintended consequence of diminished specialist reimbursement has occurred in other countries where specialists are underpaid.
Thus, as we go about the difficult task of reforming our health care system, decreasing unnecessary procedures and cutting overall costs, we must be sure to preserve what is great about our system and some of the exemplary care it provides. Most of this care is delivered by specialists, and we must be careful to continue to motivate them appropriately.
Dr. Veith is Professor of Surgery at New York University Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. He is an associate medical editor for Vascular Specialist.
The ideas and opinions expressed in Vascular Specialist do not necessarily reflect those of the Society or Publisher.
(Editor's Note: Read Dr. George Andros' introduction to this installment of Veith's Viewpoint.)
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has the laudable goals of extending health care insurance coverage and reducing overall health care costs. However, hidden in the more than 2400 pages of this bill are a number of provisions, many still unrecognized, which will have detrimental effects on our national economy and the quality of care our health system delivers to society.
One such damaging initiative within the ACA is the thrust to increase the reimbursement for primary care providers and to compensate for this increase by decreasing reimbursement to specialty care providers. Is this a good thing?
Yes, we will need more primary care physicians to do what they do for our increasingly elderly population. The ACA will provide a financial incentive to increase the numbers of such physicians. And yes, health care costs are spiraling upward, and part of this spiral is due to the over-utilization of coronary, carotid and lower extremity stents and other procedures in patients who are not benefited by them or who are actually harmed by them.
Such over-utilization was recently documented in the lead article on the front page of the New York Times (August 7, 2012). This over-utilization of specialty care may be diminished somewhat if the guilty specialists receive less compensation per case.
However, the decreased specialist reimbursement may also have the paradoxical effect of prompting the unethical specialists to do even more unnecessary cases to maintain their incomes. There should be better, more direct ways to stop unnecessary procedures than shifting specialist reimbursement to primary care physicians.
Restoring ethical behavior to physicians and considering how best to modify the reimbursement system to be a disincentive to such bad practices are beyond the scope of this commentary. However, we should examine more carefully the negative effects and unintended consequences of shifting specialist reimbursement to primary care providers.
To do this we have to examine the question: "Who today gets patients who are really sick with an organic problem well?"
It is not primary care physicians. They play valuable roles in preventive medicine, in providing simple care, in comforting and reassuring patients while their self-limited disease runs its course, in recognizing serious illness, and in directing patients to appropriate specialists when needed.
Many of these functions, although very valuable and necessary, could be fulfilled by a trained nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant and do not require a highly paid primary care physician.
On the other hand, in today’s high tech and complicated medical world, it is the highly trained medical specialist who gets patients well when they have a serious life- or limb-threatening illness. Such skilled specialists can place a coronary stent to prevent or treat an otherwise fatal or disabling myocardial infarction.
Other specialists can ablate a focus of an otherwise fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Still others can exclude an aortic aneurysm before or after it ruptures, or revascularize and save a severely ischemic limb. Other specialists can remove a variety of cancers, reconstruct a destroyed hip or fix other serious problems within the head, chest, abdomen or other parts of the body.
These skilled specialists have to work hard and devote years and long hours to be trained and to maintain their skills. They have to be available 24/7 to provide emergency treatment when minutes and hours make a difference, and they have to take the risks of failure including exposure to medical liability. For these skills, risks and their commitment, they deserve to be highly compensated in keeping with other professions that have similar requirements.
If reimbursement to such specialists is diminished, clearly the level of care that they provide – the care that really makes a difference to patients – will also be diminished. We will be sacrificing the geese that lay the golden eggs of medicine in the U. S. today, and health care will suffer.
This unintended consequence of diminished specialist reimbursement has occurred in other countries where specialists are underpaid.
Thus, as we go about the difficult task of reforming our health care system, decreasing unnecessary procedures and cutting overall costs, we must be sure to preserve what is great about our system and some of the exemplary care it provides. Most of this care is delivered by specialists, and we must be careful to continue to motivate them appropriately.
Dr. Veith is Professor of Surgery at New York University Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. He is an associate medical editor for Vascular Specialist.
The ideas and opinions expressed in Vascular Specialist do not necessarily reflect those of the Society or Publisher.
