Neurosurgery is a field that has dramatically evolved for the better over the last few decades. This progressive evolution has been exciting, but progressive change comes with an obligation to keep abreast with the latest scientific findings and emerging technologies. Although there is an abundance of meetings and opportunities for CME in neurosurgery. Since 1931, the AANS annual meeting has been a premier venue for neurosurgeons to obtain a comprehensive view of the latest emerging science, techniques, and technologies that are changing the field and improving the lives of patients.
To keep apace of the changes that need to be highlighted at the annual meeting, the AANS Scientific Program Subcommittee partners with AANS leadership and Joint Section leadership to review thousands of abstracts annually. Abstracts are judged on scientific value and likelihood of changing the field. Less than 10% of abstracts are orally presented; the others are presented as digital abstracts.
Plenary session speakers are chosen to deliver major scientific advances and to reflect on societal changes that will affect our practice and patients. Aligned with the theme of the meeting, these speakers are selected by the Annual Meeting committee in close collaboration with the current AANS President.
Practical clinics and breakfast seminars are organized annually based on a competitive evaluation of existing and proposed educational topics. Last year, 31 new seminars were proposed and vetted against current topics. Consideration for the needs of all levels of training is necessary in this process, from medical students and residents to seasoned neurosurgeons looking to learn new techniques along with a broad perspective of diverse national and international speakers, representing a variety of practice types and programs. Before the AANS meeting, there may be a special symposia to honor the legacy of neurosurgery masters.
Response to Member Surveys Leads to an Annual Meeting Frameshift
Finally, a very important part of the process of evolving the annual meeting is collating and implementing the feedback of AANS members. Every year, the scientific program committee dedicates a full day to reviewing AANS meeting attendee survey results on every educational offering from the prior annual meeting. From these data, the AANS can stay nimble and fine tune large or small changes in real time. We can also detect generational changes in the needs of our members; a recent change has been that of scheduling the majority of the scientific program on the weekend in order to address ramifications of weekday absences.
After considering the implications of such a shift, the AANS took a measured step to further quantitatively and qualitatively survey the membership and all stakeholders about the annual meeting. The quantitative survey determined the relative values members give to the various educational offerings. Not surprisingly, the membership most value the plenary sessions and the section scientific sessions. A follow up question was asked about the possibility of frameshifting the annual meeting to host the scientific sessions over the weekend. A strong majority of members’ responses were in favor of this frameshift. Next, a qualitative survey was conducted, consisting of onsite interviews with members, and phone surveys of major stakeholders in the annual meeting in order to ascertain any unintended consequences. It was clear that careful considerations would have to be made to accommodate pre-meeting symposia, committee meetings, and the CSNS meeting. After much consideration, the AANS leadership agreed to frameshift the annual meeting during the 2022 annual meeting in Philadelphia. In the meantime, smaller changes will be made in 2021 for the Vancouver annual meeting. We anticipate that these changes in the annual meeting will meet expectations and satisfy the evolving needs of the AANS membership. Thank you for your commitment to make the AANS meeting so valuable to membership around the globe. We look forward to your continued feedback to meet your needs.
