APSCVIR 2018 Summary

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APSCVIR 2018 Summary

By Dr Andrew Holden and Dr Stephen Merrilees

This year (2018) from March 8th -11th the Interventional Radiology Community from the Asia Pacific region gathered in Auckland, New Zealand for the 13th Scientific Meeting of APSCVIR. The meeting, hosted by the Interventional Society of Australasia (IRSA), was significant in that it was the first under the new title of the APSCVIR scientific meeting, and the first of the new annual format.

Held in Auckland, the City of Sails, against the beautiful backdrop of the Waitemata Harbour the meeting was a great success. A fantastic faculty from both the International Community and the local Asia Pacific region saw a comprehensive scientific content enjoyed by approximately 1000 attendees. 70 scientific sessions allowed for a comprehensive program covering all areas of vascular and nonvascular intervention. The addition of live cases from Auckland, Sydney and Singapore was one of the highlights and the Nurses and Technologist sessions were very well attended.

We received tremendous support from many global societies that helped to deliver the comprehensive program. Both CIRSE and SIR continued their great support with fantastic faculty and significant involvement in the program. CIRSE, in combination with IRSA provided delegates with an opportunity to sit the European Board of Interventional Radiology (EBIR) examination. We also had great support from other societies including VIVA, SIO and SPIR. The Vascular Society of New Zealand integrated their annual meeting into APSCVIR this year, helping to strengthen ties between IR and Vascular surgery in the region.

The support we received for Industry was outstanding and without their continued involvement a meeting of this quality would not be possible.

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Figure 1: The 2018 APSCVIR Gold Medallists Professor Vaeusorn and Dr Allen (seated) with Professors Tan, Sharma, Holden, Park, Teng (standing) and Li (seated)

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Figure 2: Live case broadcast from Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore

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Figure 3: The APSCVIR 2018 Organizing Committee with some of the Scholarship winners at the Gala dinner

A great social program including the welcome reception in the industry area, the Presidents dinner and conference Gala saw delegates experience world renowned Kiwi hospitality, food and fine wine. The Gala dinner provided APSCVIR with an opportunity to recognize two new gold medallists – Professor Nara Vaeusorn from Thailand Dr Robert Allen from Australian who join an esteemed group of past winners. It was also exciting to recognize three APSCVIR Honorary Members for the first time with Professors Barry Katzen, Michael Dake and Andreas Adam appropriately awarded this membership. A new innovation at APSCVIR 2018 was the Scholarships for young IRs from countries with developing IR programmes in our region. Twelve scholarship winners were provided free registration and accommodation to enhance their training and experience.

We hope that those who attended APSCVIR enjoyed not only the meeting but also some of the other sites New Zealand has to offer. Thank-you for attending APSCVIR 2018, and we look forward to seeing you all in Bali in 2019.

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