The December, 2017 NYSGE Annual Course had the most registrants ever, totaling 735!!
In fact, registration was 60 people more than last year!! We also had over 200 Workshop and Symposia registrants, at last count. This remains the largest regional GI meeting in the USA each year, and trails behind only DDW and the ACG meeting in terms of attendance.
There were about 87 faculty, 41 presentations in the main session, 24 presentations in the Nurses and Associates program, and countless others in the satellite seminars.
Additionally, there were 5 separate satellite and hands-on sessions during the Course, and several other special Programs. These sessions are each unique, innovative and in a word, outstanding.
We had attendees from all over the US and around the world, a testimony to the far reaching word of mouth “buzz” there is about this Course each year.
On top of all that, there were five innovative lunchtime symposia, and 11 special lectures, including the Florence Lefcourt Lecture given by Dr. Larry Brandt, the David Falkenstein Lecture, given by Dr. David Carr-Locke, the Ed Bini Lecture, given by Dr. Jon Cohen, the ASGE President’s Lecture by Karen Woods, the NYSGE President’s Address by Dr. Chris DiMaio, the Richard Mc Cray Lecture, given by Dr. Sid Winawer, and the Peter Steven’s lecture, given by Dr. Phil Katz. We also were pleased to welcome the current ACG President, Dr. Irving Pike, to our Faculty.
We had an incredible scientific poster session, again led by Drs. Satish Nagula and Susana Gonzalez. This year we had over 80 different authors who submitted nearly 50 posters, with several entries from outside the NYC area!! The poster session review was done along with a cocktail reception on Thursday evening. The room was packed; this is indeed a popular event! The always popular Peter Steven’s Video Forum, led by Drs. Anthony Starpoli, Tamas Ganda and Nikhil Kumta, again was a huge success, with 4 outstanding videos. The Fellow’s Forum on Thursday evening was superb, coordinated by Drs. Michelle Kim and Brian Bosworth; the feedback was all good.
The Doris C. Barnie Nurses and Associates Program, skillfully arranged as always by Barbara Zuccala and Nancy Schlossberg, again was a huge success, with outstanding lectures and interactive sessions. The Nurses and Associates program this year attracted well over 200 participants, all of whom were raving about the quality of the program. A huge thank you to Barbara and Nancy; we appreciate their efforts immensely.
The Live from New York Course was packed with a range of incredible cases again this year…our most sincere gratitude to Dr. Gregory Haber for the unbelievable amount of energy and effort he puts into directing this truly outstanding piece of the Course each and every year. Big time thanks to Dr. Frank Gress as well for his co-leadership again this year. The NYU-Langone location was excellent. The quality of the HD transmission is spectacular; even more impressive is the quality of the material being presented and the quality of the Faculty doing the procedures and commenting on the care…fascinating procedures at the cutting edge of gastroenterology explained by masters in their field!!
Thanks to our out of town guests at NYU, Drs. Juergen Hochberger, Laurent Palazzo, Chris Thompson and Shyam Varadarajulu, who were simply amazing, as well as to our NYC Faculty, who were equally awesome!
Thanks as well to all the panelists at the Marriott, who really were very lively and provocative this year, many of whom spent parts of both days with us…the panel discussions really brought out critical decision making points in each case…many thanks!! Special thanks on the panels to Drs. Doug Howell and Mouen Khashab, and Nancy Schlossberg, who traveled from far away to join our educational panels. We had special “Mentored by the Masters” programs, enhancing Fellows’ education during the live cases on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning; many thanks to the ten Faculty members who led the way there.
Also, we can’t thank Dr. David Robbins enough. David is now the master of the hugely important role of being behind the scenes at the live course…really making it all happen, but rarely seen!! We couldn’t have done it without him!!
Phil Joseph and his team at Advance Concepts get big time kudos as well. Their audiovisual and technical expertise is beyond amazing and we appreciate their help greatly!!
Also thanks to the NYU staff (there are many, many people involved there)!!
The Satellite Courses, both hand-on and didactic, continue to be a huge draw. Small groups, great teaching…what more could you ask for?? Nearly every session was filled to capacity, a fairly amazing thing when you consider all that is going on and the proximity of the meeting to the Holidays. A huge thank you to Drs. Brian Bosworth and Jon Cohen, who really innovated years ago to get these Programs going and who continue to help them thrive. The directors of each satellite session are truly responsible for the success of each individual program, and so we want to thank those individuals specifically: Drs. Felice Schnoll-Sussman, Reem Sharaiha, Ira Jacobson, Frank Kasmin and David Hass; all did an amazing job!!
The Hands-on and Demonstration areas, a unique and very popular feature of the Course, again conceived years ago and designed expertly by Dr. Jon Cohen, was superb once more, and seems to always be popular. Many thanks to Brian Bosworth, who continued this year to greatly help with the organization of this piece of the course. Thanks once again to Dr. Kai Matthes and his “team”, who are invaluable in getting this together and who provide many of the ex-vivo models and tissue specimens that we use. Finally, many thanks to the many faculty who helped out in the hands-on areas.
A special huge thank you to Karen Cervenka, the Society’s Managing Director, for being who she is. Karen works seemingly endlessly to put every aspect of this very complicated Course together, and she once again, incredibly, did a simply phenomenal job. Her enthusiasm, energy and dedication are very much appreciated!!!! Many others at Digestive Health Works also worked very hard on our behalf…thanks to Bina Mesheimer, Robin Weidy, Barbara Connell and everyone else who contributed behind the scenes.
Thanks also to Montefiore CME, and in particular Nada Piacentino, Marilyn Sasso and Vic Hatcher for their help.
We still miss Florence Lefcourt, the “heart and the soul of the Society”, but she “continues to be there” as well. Regular tributes to her remind us all of the wonderful woman who led us for so many years!!
The NYSGE Council helped whip the Program into shape many months ago, and we appreciate their efforts as well. Today’s version of the Course is really built on the Courses of 20, 30 and now over 40 years ago…we thank the many NYSGE council members over all the years, as well as the original founders of the Society, and appreciate all they did to shape the Society and to shape this Course. Also, congratulations to the Society’s current President, Dr. Chris DiMaio, who has had a most successful year as President!!
Most of all, we want to thank you, the Faculty of this year’s Course. You took time away from your busy schedules to join us, traveling from far and wide (France, Germany and every corner of the US), worked really hard on syllabus contributions and high quality presentations packed with videos, photos and cutting edge information. We know how difficult that can be, and just want to express our sincere gratitude for all that each of you did. The spirit of collegiality is so readily apparent; we all work together really well, and that is terrific. One more truly important thing…we all seemed to have loads of fun, and that’s maybe the best marker that things continue to go so well!!
Yes, the 41st Annual NYSGE Course was indeed a special one, and so thanks one more time for being part of it. Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year from all of the course directors and organizers to the faculty and attendees!!
New York Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy-NYSGE Blog 