UK HealthCare and the UK College of Medicine Department of Surgery welcomed an international audience of more than 500 endocrine surgeons to Lexington, Kentucky, for the 46th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES), April 18 - 20, at the Central Bank Center.
It was the first time the AAES had chosen Lexington as the site of their annual meeting at the invitation and encouragement of William B. Inabnet III, MD, MHA, FACS, Johnston Wright Endowed Professor and chair of surgery. Dr. Inabnet is a specialist in endocrine surgery and a longtime member of the association.
In addition to hosting the event, Cortney Lee, MD, the Warren H. Proudfoot Professor in Surgical Oncology and section head of endocrine surgery, served as the local arrangements chair for the AAES. She and her staff helped coordinate the details for all of the special events that showcased the best of what Lexington and UK HealthCare have to offer their visitors.
The department of surgery arranged for the UK Simulation Center to provide ultrasound training to all endocrine surgery fellows from across the country during an afternoon. Department staff and College of Medicine students volunteered to serve as live models for the ultrasound simulation. The UK Cats Lab also used its 3D printer technology to create thyroid models for fine needle aspiration (FNA) training.
The annual meeting's official opening was on Saturday morning in the Central Bank Center's ballrooms. Dr. Lee, Dr. Inabnet, and Robert S. DiPaola, MD, provost and co-EVPHA of UK HealthCare, conveyed official greetings to all the association members, guests, and AAES leadership.
Breakout and panel sessions covered a wide range of topics, with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in surgery as a recurring theme throughout the weekend.
Joseph Bobadilla, MD, professor of vascular surgery at UK, moderated a panel discussion, "Practical Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Endocrine Surgery". Daniel Hashimoto, MD, MTP, assistant professor of surgery at Penn Medicine and leader of the Penn Computer Assisted Surgery and Outcomes Lab, presented one of the keynote lectures of the weekend, “Seeing is Believing: Multimodal AI and the Future of Surgical Care.”
UK general surgery resident, Marina Robson Chase, MD, also contributed to the discussion at a scientific session in which she presented a study that compared the decision-making of physicians to several commonly used AI platforms in the use of radioactive iodine in the treatment of thyroid cancer. Omar El Kawkgi, MD, assistant professor in endocrinology, helped moderate an advanced tumor board for the management of thyroid cancer, and Dr. Lee moderated two sessions on the surgical treatment of adrenal disease.
The annual meeting concluded Monday morning with a final scientific session and a series of topical debates.
