Protocol

The 2010 VEITHsymposium™ affords journalists from trade and consumer print and broadcast media and scientific writers and researchers, an opportunity to learn more about Vascular Surgery, innovative clinical research findings, related political and economic issues, new and interventional approaches, and much more. Interview and photo opportunities with prominent international vascular surgeons will be available.

The VEITHsymposium press suite is staffed, ready to assist journalists with their requests. We are pleased to prearrange on-site interviews/discussions in the press suite or by telephone contact. Broadcast journalists seeking to develop media presentations may contact Pauline Mayer, PTM Healthcare Marketing, Inc., prior to the event at 631.979.3780.

International industry giants representing new products, technology and services will be exhibiting.

Media will be required to display credentials at all times. The VEITHsymposium™ press suite will be staffed and opened for your convenience. Light refreshments will be available.

Experts Available for Interviews

Frank J. Veith, MD:  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.
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Dr. Enrico Ascher:  Dr. Ascher is Director of the Vascular Division at Maimonides Medical Center and Professor of Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical School. He is Chairman of the Vascular Institute of New York® at Maimonides Medical Center, one of the largest vascular centers in the United States. Additionally, he is program director of the ACGME accredited Vascular Fellowship Program at Maimonides.

Dr. Ascher is a member American Surgical Association. He is past president of the Society for Vascular Surgery,Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery, Eastern Vascular Society and New York Cardiovascular Society. Dr. Ascher is the founder of the Pan American Congress on Vascular and Endovascular Surgery which provides a bi-annual forum for surgeons and interventionalists from South America, Central America and North America to interact. He also has created and directed the Vascular Fellows Competition for the last 25 years.

He is a frequent lecturer to professional societies and medical school faculties throughout the world. Dr. Ascher is engaged in uniting the specialty of vascular surgery and expanding its frontiers. Currently, he and his team are developing less invasive alternatives to perform balloon angioplasties and stenting using ultrasound guided techniques.

Dr. Ascher continues to be involved with the Society for Vascular Surgery. He founded and is President Elect of the Association of Chairs in Vascular Surgery allowing leaders in vascular surgery to develop new strategies and strengthen their services. He is of the Internationals Relations Committee and the World Federation of Vascular Surgeons.
Dr. Ascher has contributed over 250 articles to leading journals of vascular surgery and is the author of over 65 textbook chapters. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Haimovici’s Vascular Surgery: Principles and Techniques, 5th edition and is currently formulating the 6th edition.
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Dr. Kenneth Ouriel:  Dr. Ouriel was born in Rochester, NY. He attended public high school there and graduated at age 16. At that time he entered the University of Rochester where he majored in Biology and Psychology, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year, and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1977. He entered medical school at the University of Chicago where he developed an interest in Surgery and particularly in Vascular Surgery, working in the research laboratory of Dr. Christopher K. Zarins. He graduated in 1981 with Honors and began a residency in General Surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Following the five-year program, Dr. Ouriel subspecialized in Vascular Surgery, completing a fellowship with Drs. James DeWeese and Richard Green. Dr. Ouriel has joint MBA degrees from Columbia University and London School of Business.

Following the completion of training in 1987, Dr. Ouriel went into the academic practice of Vascular Surgery as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Rochester. He was active both clinically and academically, with a basic research lab funded by an NIH grant on vascular thrombosis. He was promoted to Associate Professor of Surgery in 1992. He led a multicenter study on thrombolysis for acute lower extremity arterial occlusion, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1998. He was recruited to the Cleveland Clinic that year to lead its Department of Vascular Surgery and held the academic title of Professor of Surgery. The department grew from five to 20 members in just five years, and Dr. Ouriel was promoted to the position of Chief of Surgery in 2003. A total of 14 Departments including Cardiothoracic Surgery, Urology, Orthopedics, Dentistry, Ob/Gyn, Plastic Surgery, ENT, Vascular Surgery, and the Center for Surgical Research reported to Dr. Ouriel, comprising 340 attending surgeons and 2,500 FTE. Dr. Ouriel was a member of the Clinic’s Executive Team, the committee of C-level individuals and the Chiefs of Medicine and Surgery, presiding over the Cleveland Clinic Health System.

Dr. Ouriel was a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for Vascular Surgery, serving as that society’s recorder between 2003 and 2006. He is the author of 3 textbooks in vascular surgery and over 250 original scientific articles on a wide variety of vascular surgical topics but focusing on minimally invasive means to treat vascular disease. He was the principal investigator on a five-year, $5M NIH grant on intravascular ultrasound and the atherosclerotic plaque, funded at $1M/yr for 5 years (2003 – 2008).

In 2007, Dr. Ouriel accepted the role of CEO for the Clinic’s Abu Dhabi project; running a 750 bed, 4-hospital system, the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City – the flagship hospital and Level I trauma center for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, with 5,000 FTE and 700 physicians. Dr. Ouriel recruited 12 US leaders to the hospital, all but one from the Cleveland Clinic, to join him in the management of the facility. He fostered the development of a new renal transplantation program and the first kidney transplant was performed in early 2008. In April of 2008 the hospital underwent its first Joint Commission International survey and was fully accredited by that organization.

In 2008 Dr. Ouriel was recruited to New York and accepted the position of President and Chief of International Operations at New York-Presbyterian. His responsibilities include international business development for joint ventures between New York-Presbyterian and international healthcare partners and promotion of international patient referrals to the Cornell and Columbia hospitals.
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Dr. Daniel G. Clair:  Dr. Clair  is the Chairman of the Department of Vascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and Professor of Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He is the Director of the Vascular Surgery Training Fellowship and the Endovascular Training Program offered at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Clair brings extensive training experience and endovascular techniques, and also serves as a member of the Society for Vascular Surgery PEEC Committee, the Program Committee for the Annual Meeting. He is a distinguished member of the Society for Vascular Surgery, the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery, the Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society and the Eastern Vascular Surgical Society. Dr. Clair also serves as a consultant for several large and small endovascular device companies.

Dr. Clair serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Vascular Surgery, the Journal of Endovascular Therapy and the Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery. He is also an editor for the Journal of Vascular Surgery and Vascular Disease Management.

The 2010 VEITHsymposium program will feature over 400 rapid-fire presentations offered in 44 sessions throughout the five-day event.