Los Angeles, CA
It was wonderful to return to an in-person meeting for the first time in two years. Despite having the meeting in Los Angeles, California for the second straight time, the world is in a much different place than it was in 2020. We fortunately arrived at a time when COVID cases in LA were at a nadir, allowing for some near-normal (or new normal) social interactions. It was wonderful to be among so many colleagues again to trade stories and catch up on each other’s lives. Sadly, so many international colleagues were unable to attend due to COVID restrictions and travel challenges.
This year SCVP pulled out all of the stops to be a truly innovative society. Due to changes in the USCAP schedule, we were forced to move more of our offerings to Saturday. Not a problem. Dylan Miller arranged our first ever (?) event to be held in a movie theater, the Regal LA Live. After a small hiccup on AV problems, in which we were asked to move theatres (but not until the movie finished playing in the adjacent theatre!) we opened our Saturday event with our Young Investigator talks. These were a mix of live and videotaped presentations, all of which were excellent.
After a brief intermission, we picked up the show with some great Mary Ann Sens Open Mic(roscope) night cases from many of our members. Lots of suggests were offered on the cases from both the live audience and the audience participating via Zoom.
The final event of the program was the Distinguished Achievement Award presentation given by Dr. Richard Mitchell, who spoke of his journey between research and education. The lecture was so moving he was given a best supporting actor Oscar on the spot. Throughout the presentations, the SCVP members were able to relax in the stadium seating chairs and at least one member remarked this was the most comfortable lecture hall we had ever used! With our bellies full of movie theatre popcorn, we all headed off to prepare for the next day’s activities.
The Sunday morning sessions discussed “Racially Related Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease.” These 4 talks, given by Drs. Karol Watson, Peter Wang, Billie Fyfe-Kirschner, and Rick Vander Heide covered a number of topics on how cardiovascular diseases differ among races. These included racial disparities in health care delivery, racial differences in e-cigarette use, the impact of APOL1 on cardiovascular disease, and the impact of race on COVID-19. The session was very well attended and covered new ground for our society. Our general business meeting after the sessions highlighted much of the progress made in the last year, including increasing our activites to year-round events.
Sunday evening’s banquet was held at Fogo de Chao. There was great food (that never stops coming) and wine. Dr. Bobby Padera led a memorable roast of Rick Mitchell which included a wonderful Zoom adventure and story about tearing out a bathtub. No wonder Rick won an Oscar at our event!
In addition, Monica De Gaspari was given our young investigator award.
Other great cardiovascular events were held on Monday and Tuesday. Our cardiovascular evening session was entitled “Cardiac Pathology that’s Electrifying! The Pathology of the Cardiac Conduction System and Arrhythmic Disorders” and was a great coverage of many of the things that can go wrong in the conduction system.
The 2023 SCVP Companion meetings will be headed to New Orleans, LA. We look forward to seeing many of you in the Big Easy. Pictures from Los Angeles 2022 are below. Clicking on one will start a swipeshow.
