47th Annual VEITHsymposium Canceled; 48th Annual Meeting Now Planned for November 2021

September 24, 2020—The VEITHsymposium organizers announced they have canceled the 47th annual VEITHsymposium that was rescheduled to take place on February 23-27, 2021 in New York, New York. The meeting was originally planned for November 17-21, 2020, but postponed on June 4 because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The conference leadership is now planning the 48th annual VEITHsymposium for November 16-20, 2021, at the New York Hilton in New York City.

The organizers considered holding a virtual or hybrid meeting before November 2021, but they decided that the nature of the meeting makes that difficult or impossible. They also recognized that “[A]ll of us are Zoomed out with virtual meetings, and there are some elements of human behavior that cannot be performed virtually.”

The announcement was made via electronic communication to the meeting’s industry partners from symposium chairman Frank J. Veith, MD, and cochairmen Enrico Ascher, MD, Kenneth Ouriel, MD, and Sean P. Lyden, MD.

Dr. Veith and colleagues noted that control of the COVID-19 virus in the first quarter of 2021 is uncertain. Problems stemming from the pandemic and attempts to control it are continuing to impact all aspects of society around the world. This is particularly true of large in-person medical meetings, which depend heavily on air travel and large numbers of physicians, health care professionals, and industry representatives congregating in one place.

The hope is that by November 2021, the virus will be under control with a vaccine and therapeutics available so that the disease is no longer dangerous. Then, travel should be safe, and in-person medical meetings should be possible.

The symposium leaders stated that they plan to update and modify the program that was prepared for the November 2020 meeting so that it will reflect the state-of-the-art in vascular disease treatment in November 2021.

For the 48th annual VEITHsymposium, the organizers will largely invite the speakers and moderators that they included in the November 2020 meeting and ask them to speak/moderate in similar sessions and on similar topics as had been planned for the 47th annual VEITHsymposium. Speakers will be asked to update their talks so that they reflect the most up-to-date status of vascular disease treatment in late 2021. Titles may be changed to reflect the new nature of their talks. The 2021 meeting will also include additional talks on interesting new developing items. Updated information will be available online at www.VEITHsymposium.org.