FOR THE PAST 10 years the Venous Symposium (VS) has delivered the most practical education on the treatment of venous disease. Although the circumstances of COVID-19 forced VS to host a virtual conference, VS was committed to delivering the program their community has grown accustomed to. VS 2020 Virtual welcomed 1,000 attendees from 55 different countries and 45 US states. VS has had overwhelming support and unprecedented activity on the virtual platform.
Delivering the symposium’s exceedingly interactive program, complete with live patient scanning and examinations, open access to expert faculty, debates, clinical cases, and video presentations via a virtual platform would pose many challenges. Even more challenging would be bringing together venous experts from around the globe to share their knowledge virtually and delivering the content live to attendees spread throughout six continents. Yet, you can always count on VS to provide continuing venous education no matter how challenging the circumstances.
VS 2020 VIRTUAL
The virtual program offered on-demand access to the entire educational program including the industry-sponsored Meet the Expert sessions and the virtual exhibit hall for an entire year. Attendees had the opportunity to register as a CME or a non-CME attendee. Attendees who registered as a CME attendee were able to claim up to 30 credits. The virtual program covered topics such as superficial vein therapies, diagnostic imaging, PE management, management of venous ulcers, deep vein therapies, the socioeconomic and clinical impact of edema, new methods, early results, clinical trials, application of different types of compression, aesthetic vein treatment, venous stenting, pelvic vein disorders, and superficial vein treatment. Attendees were also able to take part in patient evaluations, live ultrasound imaging, and clinical cases.
The fellows program led by Kush Desai and Nicholas Sikalas was also offered virtually. 300 fellows/residents participated in the virtual fellows program. The program covered clinical cases on various topics such as saphenous ablation, non-saphenous veins, venous claudication, pelvic venous reflux, DVT thrombolysis, and PE treatment.
CONTINUED LEARNING
VS 2020 Virtual content and CME opportunity will be available for an entire year. Attendees of the live program will be able to view the session recordings and claim CME credits. For those that did not have a chance to participate in the live event registration for access to the recordings will be made available once the videos are live.
Venous Symposium has also rolled out a monthly webinar series. Registration for monthly webinars can be found at venous-symposium.com/vs_virtual.
