November 21, 2003

VIVA Las Vegas: MGH physicians lead innovative conference

MGH Cardiovascular Medicine and Vascular Surgery physicians recently played a leading role in a new and innovative continuing medical education course that allowed 600 clinicians from around the world to learn about the latest treatments in vascular disease.

(From left, Douglas Drachman, MD, Joseph Garasic, MD, Kenneth Rosenfield, MD, Richard Cambria, MD, Glen Lamuraglia, MD, James Black, MD, Dharsh Fernando, MD, and Brian MacNeill, MD)

Held in October in Las Vegas, the sold-out, four-day course, entitled Vascular InterVentional Advances (VIVA), established itself as a leading national education course for peripheral vascular interventions by utilizing a state-of-the-art conference format.

According to Kenneth Rosenfield, MD — director of MGH Cardiac and Vascular Invasive Services for MGH Cardiology, who is a co-founder of the course and on the board of directors for VIVA — the goal of the course was to take a different approach to educating physicians about the latest cutting-edge techniques and devices used to treat vascular disease, based on interactive computer and simulation-based learning.

Several components of the course distinguished it from other continuing medical education formats. For example, the course was modeled after the MGH Vascular Center, in that the three major specialties involved with treating vascular disease — cardiovascular medicine, vascular surgery and vascular radiology — were equally represented on the faculty. In addition, course attendees were provided laptop computers to allow them complete access to the course curriculum, interaction with the faculty through an on-location intranet site and instant messaging capabilities.

Another key aspect of the course was the use of five medical simulators on-site to allow participants to practice advanced vascular procedures on computerized mannequins in a simulated catheterization lab environment.

In addition, the MGH was one of three sites that performed live vascular interventional procedures, which were broadcast in "real time" to the conference. Rosenfield, along with Richard Cambria, MD, chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and a select member of the VIVA faculty, led the MGH efforts.

"This conference represents a completely novel approach to teaching physicians, not only because of the multidisciplinary involvement, but also because of the innovative use of computers, an on-site intranet and medical simulation," says Rosenfield. "We feel proud to have had the MGH play a major role in this inaugural event."

Cambria adds, "This was a great opportunity for the MGH to demonstrate, through a live broadcast, our multidisciplinary collaboration as part of the MGH Vascular Center. We received outstanding feedback from the participants in Las Vegas."