Thank you for all who attended the 2019 AHNS Annual Meeting this past May in Austin, Texas.  This year we had over 680 head and neck surgeons, oncologists, physicians and scientists attend the meeting at the JW Marriott.  The 2019 Program Chairs, Neil D. Gross, MD, FACS, & Carole Fakhry, MD, MPH, along with Ehab Y. Hanna, MD, FACS, AHNS 2018-2019 President, put together an outstanding scientific program.

The meeting started off with 3 pre-meeting courses – an ACS exported Thyroid, Parathyroid, and Neck Ultrasound Course, the AHNS Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery Course for Residents and Fellows, and the AHNS Transoral Robotic Training Didactic Course for Fellows.  During the two day Annual Meeting, keynotes included the John Conley Lecture: “Value Based Health Care: The Agenda for Head and Neck” by Michael Porter, PhD and the Hayes Martin Lecture: “Life Lessons from my Thirty-Seven Years as a Navy SEAL” by Admiral William McRaven.

This year the program used a more interactive format with multiple debates and case-based panel sessions with the addition of live audience response questions in many of the sessions. The Jatin P. Shah Symposium on “Remote Access versus Standard Thyroidectomy: Where is the Value and Who Defines It?” was presented by a panel of experts who highlighted the pros and cons of two remote access approaches versus a traditional “open” transcervical approach for thyroidectomy.  Finally, this year the AHNS had again a record breaking number of abstract submissions.  The top submissions were selected for the scientific program including 94 oral abstract presentations, 295 posters, and 10 quickshot presentations.

To view the final program and abstracts visit: https://www.ahns.info/meetings/past_meetings/.