Message from the President...
November 10, 2020
The ongoing covid-19 viral pandemic continues to create significant havoc and disruptions to our daily lives. Each and every AVAS member is stressed and burdened in ways that we would never have imagined even a year ago. One of our common bonds is taking care of our patients, the veterans, who have served our country. We are hopeful that President-elect Biden will transform the country’s efforts to combat covid-19 and strengthen our entire healthcare system, including the Veterans Administration.
Covid-19 continues to affect the conduct of academic meetings in every specialty. Although we are hopeful that the pandemic will end soon, the future remains difficult to predict. “'It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future'” is attributed to the baseball-playing philosopher, Yogi Berra, himself a Purple Heart-medaled veteran who served in the United States Navy as a gunner’s mate in the Normandy landings during World War II.
After thoughtful deliberations, the AVAS Executive Council made the decision to transform our 2021 annual meeting to a 100% virtual format. This decision was difficult; many factors were taken into consideration including but the current financial landscape of academic institutions, the obligation to protect AVAS members and our vulnerable patients, the ability to travel 6 months from now, and the challenges of the virtual meeting format. Nevertheless, we are confident this is the right decision and promise to provide our membership with a most engaging virtual meeting in 2021. We anticipate that we will return to Pittsburgh at the end of April 2022.
Your AVAS society remains in place to support you and your efforts. Thank you for your continued strength, resilience, and care for our nation’s veterans.
Alan Dardik, MD PhD
AVAS President
The ongoing covid-19 viral pandemic continues to create significant havoc and disruptions to our daily lives. Each and every AVAS member is stressed and burdened in ways that we would never have imagined even a year ago. One of our common bonds is taking care of our patients, the veterans, who have served our country. We are hopeful that President-elect Biden will transform the country’s efforts to combat covid-19 and strengthen our entire healthcare system, including the Veterans Administration.
Covid-19 continues to affect the conduct of academic meetings in every specialty. Although we are hopeful that the pandemic will end soon, the future remains difficult to predict. “'It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future'” is attributed to the baseball-playing philosopher, Yogi Berra, himself a Purple Heart-medaled veteran who served in the United States Navy as a gunner’s mate in the Normandy landings during World War II.
After thoughtful deliberations, the AVAS Executive Council made the decision to transform our 2021 annual meeting to a 100% virtual format. This decision was difficult; many factors were taken into consideration including but the current financial landscape of academic institutions, the obligation to protect AVAS members and our vulnerable patients, the ability to travel 6 months from now, and the challenges of the virtual meeting format. Nevertheless, we are confident this is the right decision and promise to provide our membership with a most engaging virtual meeting in 2021. We anticipate that we will return to Pittsburgh at the end of April 2022.
Your AVAS society remains in place to support you and your efforts. Thank you for your continued strength, resilience, and care for our nation’s veterans.
Alan Dardik, MD PhD
AVAS President
Society Affiliation
JAMA Surgery is pleased to be the official publication for the Association of VA Surgeons.