What to look forward to at AAGL’s 2022 Global Congress on MIGS

Jon I. Einarsson, MD, MPH, is deputy editor for Contemporary OB/GYN® and past president of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL).

Einarsson: I'm excited for the meeting, because I think it's, we did have an in-person meeting last year, but it was sort of a little bit subdued because there were still a lot of restrictions due to COVID-19. I think this is the first normal meeting in a way that we'll have had for a long time.

I went to the ESG meeting in Portugal last month, and you could just tell how people are, you know, sort of relieved, of course, that the pandemic is over. The interactions are definitely better. It's not as restricted, of course, as before, and so we're back to normal, which is really nice. And because I think these meetings are not just about the science, which of course they are, but it's also about connections and having meaningful conversations about different things pertaining to your practice and business, etc.

I'm excited that things will be back to normal on that end. But I also think that they have a lot of really good things to offer. It starts out on Thursday, December 1, with their sort of PG courses, which many of them have hands-on experience. What I’m excited about is colored by what I'm interested in, right. And so, you know, my interests, for example, is endometriosis and also neuro cardiology, and they have several postgraduate courses on those. One is a hands-on course on nerve-sparing surgery, which I think it's a cadaver course, which I think would be really interesting for folks. I'm participating in one of the PG courses on endometriosis, in which it's about sort of the pelvic sidewall, and the anatomy there. But there are several other really interesting postgraduate courses that, you know, people just have to kind of look for what fits their needs.

One of the markers of excitement is that both of these are actually sold out already. And the same goes for the lunch. And they have during that day, they have these roundtables where different topics are discussed, and most of them are actually full. So that I think that shows that there's they're going to have a lot of attendees.

The regular program starts on Friday, and runs through Sunday until noon. And I always like the live surgeries at the end, that's on Sunday. But on Friday and Saturday, sort of the bulk of the regular programming. And, you know, looking through it, it’s a lot of interesting talks that I've seen, but again, it's sort of kind of more biased by based on what I'm interested. I think they have they've put together a really interesting program.

I think that the general sessions usually are where a lot of the interesting things are, they have a lot of, they usually have the award-winning videos, they have, of course, the opening ceremony, and they have usually sort of presentations by leaders in the field, people who are experts in whatever they're going to be talking about.

I think those are what you ideally don't want to miss. The general sessions you should try to attend. But, but beyond that, what I prefer is something that is practical that you can add to your knowledge, and I think the surgical tutorials are generally a good way. I'm excited. You know, it's mostly meeting friends and having conversations about our practices and stuff. It's, of course, listening to presentations, but I think it's a lot about just the social aspect and political aspect. And for me, personally, I have a couple medical device companies, also, and we're showcasing a couple of our products. So there's a lot of different aspects to be excited about.