ALOHA from Hawaii
The Western Angiographic & Interventional Society (WAIS) celebrated its 50th annual conference this past fall held September 24-29, 2022 at the Fairmont Orchid on the beautiful Island of Maui. Though I was unable to attend, (I was probably already shoveling myself out of a prairie snowstorm), a few BC IRs made their way to Hawaii and have reported back on what they got up to.
Now I had never heard of WAIS, it seems like an exclusive club, and to a degree it is. The WAIS membership region covers 15 Western States and British Columbia Canada, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and British Columbia Canada. I may email them and see if they would consider Saskatchewan western enough.
The conference covers a wide spectrum of Interventional radiology topics and includes M&M Case Presentations, Rapid Fire Clinical Rundown and The Charles T. Dotter Memorial Lecture, this year given by Dr. Barry Katzen. This year, CAIRs very own Dr. Lindsay Machan was recognized as a Luminary in Interventional Radiology, he is also a past president of WAIS. Other Canadian past presidents include Dr. David Liu. Aside from potentially rubbing elbows with the above name dropped IR heavy hitters, this year Dr. Nevin de Korompay, IR from Kelowna BC and WAIS member, had the privilege of meeting both Dr. David Kumpe and Dr. Tom Sos, I suspect you’ve used their catheters once or twice.
In conclusion, if you are only able to attend one conference a year I would recommend the CAIR Annual Scientific meeting in Quebec, QC, May 25-27, 2023. But if you are looking for a conference in the fall that is held in Hawaii every 2 years consider WAIS (you don’t have to be a member to go to the conference and there is an excellent conference rate at a beautiful hotel). Maybe see if Dr. Machan can get you the member rate if you don’t live in BC?
Dr. de Korompay and Dr. Kumpe living their best island boy lives while enjoying the Western Angiographic & Interventional Society Annual Conference in Maui in September.