How vascular procedures should or should not be done at the VEITHsymposium

Dr. Frank J. Veith, Professor of Surgery and the William J. von Liebig Chair in Vascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and Professor of Surgery at New York University Medical Center join eHealth Radio. Dr. Veith is the chairman of the VEITHsymposium, the largest medical symposia in the world attended by vascular surgeons and interventionalists. VEITHsymposium is now in it's 39th year in New York City.

Listen to interview [audio player below] with host Eric Michaels & guest Dr. Frank J. Veith discuss the following:

• Dr. Veith, you started your career with a strong interest in treating patients with vascular disease.  You are known for limb salvaging and one of the first in the globe to perform the first endovascular procedures for abdominal aortic aneurysms. For our listening audience, what is the role of a vascular surgeon?
• What are the types of diseases and conditions vascular surgeons typically treat?
• What is new and on the horizon in the field of vascular surgery?
• You have had an enormous career, traveling globally lecturing to many vascular surgeons and specialists, especially in developing countries, giving them your time, energy and opinions relative to how vascular procedures should or should not be done.  Care to elaborate?
• What was the inspiration and motivation that engaged you to develop and write a vascular surgery program, known as  VEITHsymposium, (now in it's 39th year) where you have served as Chairman of the largest international vascular surgery program in the world?
• How does a program like the VEITHsymposium benefit it's attendees and who exactly should attend this meeting?
• How does VEITHsymposium benefit the public?
• What are your biggest concerns today regarding vascular surgery, in particular having to do with unnecessary procedures? Will you be addressing this at this years VEITHsymposium?
• What are your concerns or positives on Obamacare and it's impact on vascular surgery if any?
• Your final concluding comments about its negative effects on the medical device industry?

Dr. Veith graduated from Cornell University Medical School with Honors before completing an internship at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York and his surgical residency training at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Veith achieved success with his pioneering work in experimental and clinical lung transplantation. In the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Veith's attention turned toward Vascular Surgery with an emphasis on lower extremity revascularization procedures. He and his colleagues were the first to advocate an aggressive approach to saving limbs threatened by arteriosclerosis and gangrene when most patients with this problem were being treated by a major amputation.

In the late 1980s and early1990s Dr. Veith became increasingly involved with endovascular treatments. He and his group were the first to perform an endovascular graft repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm or EVAR in the United States. They also were the first in the world to perform an EVAR for a ruptured abdominal aneurysm.
Dr. Veith has held positions in every national vascular society and many international ones. In 1995 he was elected President of the Society for Vascular Surgery, the most prestigious society in the field. He has been a leading advocate for the recognition of Vascular Surgery as a separate and distinct specialty and is a past Chairman of the American Board of Vascular Surgery.

Dr. Veith held positions as Chief of Vascular Surgery and Interim Chairman of Surgery at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine for many years. In the last five, he was The William J. Von Liebig Chair in Vascular Surgery and the Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery. Throughout his career he has received numerous awards and honors as a leader, outstanding teacher and innovator in Vascular Surgery.

He is now Professor of Surgery and The William J. von Liebig Chair in Vascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and Professor of Surgery at New York University Medical Center. As he has done for many years, Dr. Veith also chairs the largest Vascular Surgery meeting, the VEITHsymposium, held annually in New York City.

Specialty areas: Endovascular Surgery, Limb Salvage Surgery, Endovascular Aneurysm Repair EVAR, Carotid Stenting vs. Carotid Endarterectomy, Vascular Surgery as a Separate and Distinct Specialty.

Related Web Site: veithsymposium.org