The American Venous Forum is gearing up for the 26th Annual Meeting to be held in New Orleans, LA, February 19–22, 2014. The 26th Annual Meeting will be packed with cutting-edge science, guest lectures and specialty symposia on a variety of venous and lymphatic health topics. Each day of the meeting will feature scientific sessions premiering high quality abstracts.

General scientific sessions feature original scientific oral, quick-shot, and poster presentations. These sessions will be organized by topic: superficial vein disease, venous thromboembolism/IVC filters, chronic vein obstructions, compression/wound care, and lymphedema. Winners will be selected from these presentations for the AVF Best Paper and Best Poster awards. Also awarded at the 26th Annual Meeting will be the Servier Traveling Fellowship, which provides two fellows in vascular healthcare the opportunity to present their research at the European Venous Forum Annual Meeting in Paris, France.

The American Venous Forum is honored to host Professor Alberto Smith as the Strandness Memorial Lecturer at the 26th Annual Meeting. Alberto Smith is a professor of vascular science and head of the academic department of surgery at King’s College London. His research centers around the regulation of tissue-remodeling in vascular diseases, in particular venous disease, with an emphasis on the elucidating mechanisms that regulate thrombus resolution and the development and maintenance of venous valves. This work is carried out using both models of disease and studies in man and is facilitated by biochemical, histological, genetic and novel imaging techniques.

He is a founding member of the European Vascular Biology Organization and is the Non-Clinical Member of the Vascular Society of Great Britain & Ireland Research Committee. Don’t miss Professor Alberto Smith and his lecture entitled, “Insights into Mechanisms that Regulate the Resolution of Venous Thrombi,” on Thursday, February 20, 2014.

Specialty Symposia at the AVF Annual Meeting have expanded for 2014. The 26th Annual Meeting will feature six specialty symposia entitled Deep Venous Disease, chaired by Suresh Vedantham, MD; Vascular Medicine & Thrombosis, chaired by Thom Rooke, MD, FSVM; Wound Care, Lymphedema & Compression, chaired by Colleen Moore, MD, FACS; Superficial Venous Disease, chaired by Steven Elias, MD; Models of Venous Thrombosis, chaired by Jose Diaz, MD; and Biomechanics & Bioengineering, chaired by Ghassan Kassab, MD, and Fedor Lurie, MD. This year attendees will have the opportunity to attend two of the six Specialty Symposia Sessions.

Another feature of the 26th Annual Meeting will be the Villavicencio Symposium: Pulmonary Embolism Treatment, chaired by Victor Tapson. This Symposium features the talks, “How to Optimize Medical Therapy for PE” and “The Role of Catheter Directed Thrombolytic Therapy.” Pulmonary embolism is a serious medical issue-in the United States, and this session will be a great resource for meeting attendees to learn more about current treatment techniques.

Each year, as an additional feature at AVF Annual Meetings, the David S. Sumner Venous Summit precedes the opening of the meeting. This half-day session is titled, “When Things Go Wrong - A Rare Case of Mismanagement,” and will use a real case of mismanagement to learn about current standard of care for venous disease, existing evidence supporting management strategies when complications occur, and discuss ethical, legal and reimbursement issues involved in the management of such cases. The discussion is expected to center on key questions that need to be answered by research regarding necessary changes in
educational programs and on the effective ways to deal with reimbursement challenges. Session Chair and AVF President-Elect Fedor Lurie, MD, will open the Summit followed by talks from an esteemed faculty. The David S. Sumner Venous Summit is a separately accredited program that offers additional MOC Level 2 self-assessment credits.

The 2014 26th Annual Meeting will be held in New Orleans, LA—the same location as the very first AVF Annual meeting in 1989. Please join the AVF as we celebrate our history in New Orleans on February 19–22, 2014 at The Roosevelt hotel.