Global Congress Update: Registration, Housing, Med Talks and Panels

Each month we get closer to the annual AAGL Global Congress. This reunion of highly innovative and motivated minimally invasive gynecologic surgeons will be a place to initiate, develop, and promote new ideas and techniques. Questions and answers, debates, and informal discussions are the most stimulating moments. I personally encourage each of you to exchange more and more. Do not be afraid to talk about your “genius idea,” someone around the world likely had the same! As you initiate collaborations, you will get the most out of this experience.

What great achievements will we try to unlock this year? Will our intent to examine sustainability in the operating room impact our choices and practices? How will we grow and develop as surgeons, and as a result, how many more lives will be improved by the progress in our care and understanding? Let us find these answers together.

It is my hope that as the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) confirms faculty and finalizes the schedule, you will begin to shift your planning into gear to join us in Nashville! Registration and Housing are now open! Virtual or In-Person Registration includes full access to all courses in the Scientific Program including special lectures, postgraduate courses, panels, debates, breakout sessions, surgical tutorials, MED Talks and more! In addition, a special pre-congress webinar session will be organized in September, so early registration is highly recommended!

At registration you can also select to add on specialty Simulation or Cadaveric Labs, sign up for the Postgraduate Roundtable Lunch, purchase tickets to the Foundation of the AAGL Awards Ceremony and Celebration and the President’s Wrap Up Party, or register your guest. The early bird registration discount ends September 10, 2023. Upon registration, you will be sent a link to secure your hotel reservations at AAGL’s discounted rates. Please note that our discounted room rates are available on a first come, first served basis, so complete your registration soon!

This month I will tell you more about the exciting AAGL MED Talks and Panels that we have planned. AAGL’s 15-minute, “Ted style” Talks are efficiently designed to capture your attention and deliver high-quality content from some of our most gifted speakers. In AAGL MED TALK 1, The Endometrium – An Organ? by Alka Kumar, we will rediscover the Endometrium, the fascinating lining of the uterus that is one of the most dynamic changing environments visible with the Hysteroscope. Next, AAGL MED TALK 2, Racial Disparity in the Care of Patients will prove to be an eye-and mind opening presentation by Michelle Louie, the way we consider our daily practice will be different after this session. In AAGL MED TALK 3, Climate Change Begins at 7:15, Kelly N. Wright will share about the disproportionate level of carbon emissions produced by the global healthcare industry versus other industries, thereby making our industry an excellent target for change and emphasizing how important surgeons could and should be in these changes. AAGL MED TALK 4, What is Happening in Endometriosis Online Communities? by Matthew Wilkens, Kristen Pepin, and Frederica Bologna, will present the findings from an artificial intelligence program they used to analyze over 30,000 social media posts made by patients in endometriosis groups on Reddit. This information is invaluable for MIGS surgeons. Understanding what is important to patients is essential to improving the endometriosis patient experience. Finally, AAGL MED TALK 5: Sustainability in Surgery: Preserving your Wellness Through (Micro) Habit Change by Matthew T. Siedhoff, will address record levels of physician burnout and the habits that stand in the way of optimal career satisfaction. In turn, he will share the benefit of incremental tiny changes that add up to a happier life. Spread throughout our General Sessions, these riveting MED Talks will be sure to stimulate our thoughts.

In addition, we have three panels that will catch your attention. In Panel 1, Change that is Real and Lasting: Is it Possible to Achieve True Sustainability in Surgical Care? Chair Louise P. King, and Faculty Ali Melnyk and Elliot G. Richards will discuss the environmental burden caused by operating room waste and how we as individuals can make meaningful change. Panel 2, Rapid Fired: Oncology Perspectives by Chair Sven Becker, and Faculty Samar Nahas and Amani Harris, will provide a rapid-fire overview of three controversial topics: Morcellation and its oncologic implications, the benefits of prophylactic salpingectomy, and the risks and benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy. Last, Panel 3: Adenomyosis: Understand and Approach an Elusive Disease, led by Chair Sun-Wei Guo, and Faculty Caterina Exacoustos and Marco Aurelio Pinho de Oliveira, will review pathophysiology and the essence of imaging-based diagnostic workups for adenomyosis, illustrate challenges in diagnosis, and walk the audience through how to manage adenomyosis-associated infertility.

There is something for everyone at this year’s Global Congress. These offerings provide just a glimpse of the many dedicated chairs, faculty and lecturers lined up to provide education that not only grows us as surgeons, but as residents of this planet. See you in Nashville!