Preparing interventional radiology for new era in healthcare

The Society of Interventional Radiology will hold its 39th Annual Scientific Meeting March 22–27, 2014, in San Diego. SIR 2014 is the world’s most comprehensive meeting dedicated to interventional radiology and will feature more than 400 scientific presentations and 250 hours in educational programming covering a broad range of image-guided, minimally invasive scientific advances. The meeting’s theme, “Convergence,” illustrates the multidimensional nature of this unique medical specialty and reflects the diversity of the program’s topics and the members of the worldwide interventional radiology community.

“This is an exciting time for our specialty. Interventional radiology has always been at the fore of modern, technology-driven, image-guided medicine to improve patient care. Today, with value and quality often driving treatment choices for patients and health care systems alike, interventional radiology is often the best option for a wide variety of disease conditions,” said Daniel B. Brown, M.D., FSIR, SIR’s Annual Scientific Meeting program chair. “The SIR Annual Scientific Meeting is where we come together to reflect the breadth of our specialty as a global interventional radiology community,” said Brown, professor of radiology and radiological sciences at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville.

SIR 2014’s intensive program is designed to provide more interactivity, more hands-on learning and increased access to experts across the specialty, supplying a competitive edge in an evolving health care environment. In addition to workshops, categorical courses and other practical program elements, SIR 2014’s plenary sessions will be the centerpiece of educational activities, offering comprehensive reviews of current data, explorations of the newest interventional techniques and frank discussions of potential treatment benefits. “The Next Big Thing in IR” plenary will explore new technologies and treatments, such as prostatic artery embolization, renal denervation, use of robotics, ablative cancer therapies and molecular interventional oncology.

SIR 2014 attendees can design a personal program around more than 15 educational pathways, such as current affairs (including navigating the Affordable Care Act, cosmetic IR, maintenance of certification and social media tools); practice development (radiation safety and day-to-day clinical practice advice from “In the Trenches” sessions); oncologic, gastrointestinal, neurovascular and carotid, peripheral arterial and venous interventions, renal insufficiency and embolization.

The March 22 clinical symposium will focus on morbidity and mortality within peripheral arterial disease, oncology and embolization; the March 27 symposium will showcase “How I Do It” sessions in venous disease, embolization and oncology. SIR 2014’s “In the Trenches” series will examine the day-to-day world of the interventional radiologist at various career stages. Categorical courses are designed to concentrate on a singular topic within the specialty, such as hemodialysis, portal hypertension, practice management and women’s health. “Meet the Professors” sessions provide the unique opportunity for informal, provocative discussion with interventional radiology thought leaders.

About the Society of Interventional Radiology

Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, such as in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine. Today, interventional oncology is a growing specialty area of interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists can deliver treatments for cancer directly to the tumor without significant side effects or damage to nearby normal tissue.

Many conditions that once required surgery can be treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit www.SIRweb.org. SIR is holding its 39th Annual Scientific Meeting March 22–27, 2014, in San Diego. The meeting’s theme “Convergence” illustrates the multidimensional nature of interventional radiology and reflects the diversity of program’s topics and the members of the broader interventional radiology community who converge at the Annual Scientific Meeting to learn, share and network.