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2009 MEETING
The 33rd Annual Meeting of the Association of VA Surgeons is scheduled on April, 17 - 21, 2009 at The Charles Hotel, Cambridge, MA. More details to follow.
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Maggie and I returned from Nigeria in 1993 and I missed the AVAS meeting in Augusta that year. I have made it a priority to attend each and every AVAS meeting since 1994 and consider it one of my two most important professional organizations, the other being the APDS (Association of Program Directors in Surgery). The ACS has been supportive of the AVAS and a major “club” as well of course. Per Dickens, “These are the best of times, the worst of times” on the VA front. Our salaries have increased; there is public recognition of the quality of care we provide; yet, we are beset by increasing scrutiny by the IG and at times Central Office. What I call the “businessification of medicine” is rearing its head to compete with the VA trinity of “Patient Care, Research, and Education”, the catalogue I signed up under and follow to this day. The AVAS is crucial on several fronts as we face increasing oversight, regulations, demands, and, at times, inimical demands on our time and priorities. The AVAS is for me many things: a support group, a host of colleagues with similar visions, a “think tank” of ideas about how to proceed in the current political and economic environments, a collegial body quick to encourage, not to castigate. The AVAS meetings are friendly, non-competitive assemblies where it is great to bring residents and even medical students. Our patients on the whole are the most grateful to be found this side of Africa. We VA surgeons need each other. The leaders of this society are a terrific group, including in the past four years: Bill Cheadle, a hurdler and researcher of the top order, Aaron Fink (“my” medical student from Baltimore days) and an accomplished, published underwater photographer, Walter Longo, a Basic Science, 1988 AVAS Resident Awardee during his residency years at Yale, and most recently Kamal Itani, a superb educator, administrator, and investigator. I tell folks: “I’m just a good ole boy from the South that likes to operate.” I feel that I am in “high cotton” being in a leadership role with all the talent the VA Surgery constellation holds. I thank you. This year I hope that you will join us in San Francisco for the AVAS Council of Chiefs Meeting, the reception for all VA Surgeons, and that you will encourage your colleagues and even your residents to join us. The meeting and reception as usual will be on the Sunday afternoon of the College, October 12th. Ms. Sue Lentz, our able Administrator, will apprise you of the exact location and time as those arrangements are finalized. We especially hope to see you in Cambridge, MA for the 33rd Annual Surgical Symposium of the AVAS. Festivities start on Saturday morning April 17, 2009 with a special tribute to the NSQIP on its 15th anniversary. The annual meeting will run from Sunday through noon on Tuesday, April 18-20, 2009. Join us and encourage your residents to present. The abstract deadline is the first week of January 2009. Our Program Chair is Marc Basson and Local Arrangements are being headed up by none other than Kamal Itani. Come. Bring your spouse. Bring a resident. I encourage you to revisit the excellent “white paper” orchestrated by Walter Longo and published in the American Journal of Surgery 190:662-675, 2005. Back to Dickens: Amidst all the performance measures, waiting times, documentation, peer review committees, etc, do not lose your vision on why you chose a career in surgery and a position with the VA. We are involved in most meaningful work on many fronts: patient care, research, and education. I have several signs over my desks and live my aphorisms and mottos. “Don’t let your critics set your agenda.” We are engaged in good, meaningful work. We are most blessed, most fortunate. Enjoy. I look forward to seeing you in San Francisco in October and in Cambridge in April. Lafia. (Be well; have health; peace) John L. Tarpley
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Welcome
to AVAS 2008-2009. I thank the membership for the high honor of
serving as the president of Association of VA Surgeons (AVAS) for
this academic year. I was educated in the VA at both the medical
student and resident level. My single most important mentor/teacher
during my residency was Dick Kieffer of the Loch Raven (Baltimore)
VA. I have been privileged to work as a surgeon in the VA for 18+
years and consider this an excellent fit for someone who is keenly
interested in resident and medical student education. It works advantageously
for those interested in research as well. Plus we have challenging,
excellent clinical care opportunities. |
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