SIR Announces 2014 Annual Meeting Program

December 11, 2013—The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) announced that its 39th annual scientific meeting will be held March 22–27, 2014, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. SIR’s 2014 meeting will feature more than 400 scientific presentations and 250 hours in educational programming, covering a broad range of image-guided, minimally invasive scientific advances. Early registration is available until January 10, 2014. More information and registration are available online at www.SIRweb.org or www.SIRmeeting.org.

According to SIR, the 2014 meeting’s theme is “Convergence,” which is intended to illustrate the multidimensional nature of interventional radiology and to reflect the diversity of the program’s topics and the members of the worldwide interventional radiology community. Daniel B. Brown, MD, serves as Program Chair of SIR 2014. Dr. Brown is Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.

In the SIR press release, Dr. Brown commented, “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.” He added, “The SIR annual scientific meeting is where we come together to reflect the breadth of our specialty as a global interventional radiology community.” 

The society advised that the SIR 2014 meeting program is designed to increase interactivity, hands-on learning, and access to experts across the specialty. 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 discussions of potential treatment benefits. “The Next Big Thing in Interventional Radiology” plenary session 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 interventional radiology, maintenance of certification, and social media tools), practice development (radiation safety and day-to-day clinical practice advice from “In the Trenches” sessions), as well as oncologic, gastrointestinal, neurovascular and carotid, peripheral arterial and venous interventions, and renal insufficiency and embolization topics. 

The March 22nd clinical symposium will focus on morbidity and mortality within peripheral arterial disease, oncology, and embolization, and the March 27th 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, stated the society.