Top Five Insights from STSA 61st Annual Meeting Evaluations

March 11, 2015 | By | Reply More

STSA collected more than 250 physician and allied health participant evaluations to measure the impact and success of the 61st Annual Meeting, which was held November 5-8, 2014 in Tucson, AZ. Here are five top insights from the collected evaluation data:

  1. Participants attend the STSA Annual Meeting for the educational program. 2014 meeting goers scored educational sessions as the most important factor in influencing their decision to attend the STSA Annual Meeting. The second most important factor was meeting destination, followed by networking/career opportunities, and STSA social activities and fellowship.
  2. Participants obtained new information at the STSA 61st Annual Meeting that will allow them to make changes in their practice. Eighty percent of meeting goers rated the extent that they feel the STSA 61st Annual Meeting provided them with new information as very good or excellent, and 62% reported that they plan to make changes in their practice based on information they obtained at the meeting.
  3. VADs and TAVR are among the most popular topics that participants would like to see presented at future meetings. Other common topic suggestions included minimally invasive procedures, ECMO, coding and reimbursement, and health policy.
  4. The most-attended STSA 61st Annual Meeting sessions included the First Scientific Session and the General Session. Meeting attendees packed the general session room for the Thursday afternoon, First Scientific Session and again on Friday morning for the General Session, which featured the Kent Trinkle Lecture by Dr. Mark Slaughter, the President’s Invited Lecture by Dr. David Shahian, and Dr. Richard Prager’s Presidential Address.
  5. Postgraduate Program breakout presentations received some of the highest presenter ratings. Drs. Edward Chen and David Jones received the highest overall presenter ratings for their Postgraduate Program Breakout Session talks. Dr. Chen presented his talk “Current Management of Type A and B Acute Dissection” during the Adult Cardiac Breakout session. Dr. Jones’ talk “Current Management of Stage III-A (P123N2MO) Lung Cancer” was presented during the General Thoracic Breakout.

Meeting evaluations also included constructive criticism, including a common frustration among participants that several 2014 sessions went over the allotted time scheduled. The Program Committee will take this into sincere consideration as they assign moderators in 2015. Another common theme among feedback was a desire for meetings to be held in the Southern region. STSA staff and Council will keep this in mind when selecting future meeting venues.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this evaluation process and provided STSA with their valuable feedback.

Plan to attend the STSA 62nd Annual Meeting, November 4-7, 2015 at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts in Orlando. The deadline to submit abstracts for presentation at the 2015 meeting is Monday, April 6. Learn more at www.stsa.org/62ndannual.

2014 Evaluation Data

This report was generated by analyzing the feedback of more than 250 STSA 61st Annual Meeting attendees, more than half of whom rated their satisfaction with the meeting as being excellent.

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Category: Annual Meeting, Education, News