Faculty and residents from Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery made a strong showing at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) Annual Meeting last month in Austin, Texas.
The Residency Program won third place for the most submitted abstracts. In addition, there were nine oral presentations, nine seminars and symposia, and digital poster presentations.
The CNS Annual Meeting provides continuing medical education for practicing neurosurgeons, neurosurgical residents in training, postgraduate neurosurgical fellows, and advanced practice providers including nurses, physician assistants, and clinical specialists.
Joseph King Jr., MD, an associate professor of neurosurgery at Yale School of Medicine and associate program director of Neurosurgery Residency, says he was impressed with the Yale residents’ work that was highlighted at the meeting.
“I went to every one of our residents’ presentations to provide moral support and they all did a wonderful job,” Dr. King says. “We had an incredible, wide array of topics and methodologies that showed the breadth of our research efforts in our program, from basic science to translational to outcomes, including local and large databases.”
For example, two poster presentations from Nanthiya Sujijantarat, MD, a fifth-year neurosurgery resident at Yale School of Medicine, highlighted Yale’s experience with the transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) system for neurovascular procedures and included a systematic review and meta-analysis of clot composition and stroke etiology.
Elsewhere, Stephanie Robert, MD, PhD, a fifth-year neurosurgery resident at Yale School of Medicine, gave an oral presentation on her work in animal models to find a pharmacological treatment for inflammatory hydrocephalus.
In addition to supporting the residents, Dr. King says the meeting held educational value for him, too.
“When you are at a single hospital or two hospitals like me, as I am at the VA, there is a certain way things are done. But when you go to a meeting like this and you hear from other national and international leaders who face the same problems as us, you get a broader perspective and can look at old problems in a new way,” he says.
Aladine Elsamadicy, MD, a fourth-year neurosurgery resident at Yale School of Medicine, agrees.
This meeting includes all of the neurosurgery programs in the country. To have the third-most submitted abstracts is a big achievement
Stephanie Robert, MD
“The beauty of CNS is that you have people from all over the country and world coming together to present and it’s a fostering of diverse ideas and collaboration,” he says. “What’s also nice is that it’s not just a section meeting. It’s all encompassing, and we had presentations in tumor, vascular, spine, pediatrics, epilepsy and functional neurosurgery.”
The meeting is always an excellent place to network and connect with colleagues, he adds.
“This was the first national meeting for neurosurgeons since COVID and there was a lot of excitement for us to be able to see one another and catch up. Plus, the CNS did a great job of keeping everything as safe as possible,” Dr. Elsamadicy says.
Dr. Sujijantarat says the meeting is especially valuable for senior residents who are interested in meeting people from the institutions where they might want to pursue a post-graduate fellowship.
“What I most enjoyed about the CNS meeting was the networking aspects. Being surrounded by a bunch of neurosurgeons, most of whom are much smarter than you, has a way of inspiring you to think bigger,” she says. “For many of us, CNS has been a breeding ground for collaborations in research and a great way to keep a pulse on what’s going on in other institutions. It is also a great way to showcase the great work that's going on at Yale. I often leave the conference with new ideas and actionable items for my future career.”
Dr. Robert says she was particularly proud of the third-place in submitted abstracts.
“This meeting includes all of the neurosurgery programs in the country. To have the third-most submitted abstracts is a big achievement,” Dr. Robert says.
The event also featured impressive keynote speakers, including author Malcolm Gladwell; former NASA astronaut Mae C. Jemison, MD; American rock climber Alex Honnold who is known for his “free-solo” (without a rope) ascents; world chess champion Gary Kasparov; and Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.”
“From Gary Kasparov to Dr. Jemison, the first female African-American astronaut, the talks were tremendous, inspiring, and offered great variety,” Dr. King says. “Malcolm Gladwell spoke of disruptive innovation and how people who make big changes in their fields aren’t always well liked by their colleagues, but how it is important to push through in order to make these changes.”