VSO Announcements VSO Free Head and Neck Cancer Screening - September 11, 2010 RIR The Virginia Society of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck, Inc. will provide a free Head and Neck Cancer Screening at the Richmond International Raceway on Saturday, September 11th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. VSO is doing this to raise awareness of head and neck cancer and its risks, as well as the role of otolaryngologists. This effort will also help our society's effort to be recognized by the AAO-HNS Board of Governors as a Model Society. If you would like to join your colleagues in this worthwhile community outreach and also promote the profession of Otolaryngology, please contact Jane Davis at jdavis@ramdocs.org or call 804/622-8135. Click Here to view sign-up sheet, 2010 Virginia Society of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery/Fitz-Hugh Conference Abstracts Winners were -- Oral 1st Place Winner - Thomas Higgins, MD Eastern Virginia Medical School Oral 2nd Place Winner - Timothy, Clenney, MD Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Poster Winner - Philip Chen, MD University of Virginia Medical School The conference was very informative and enjoyed by all 98 attendees! THE VSO-HNS AND UVA DEPT. OTO-HNS EXTEND THEIR APPRECIATION TO ALL SPONSORS! Silver Sponsors: Elbyrne G. Gill Foundation Stryker Bronze Sponsors: A-Claim Acclarent Alcon Laboratories, Inc. Arthro Care ENT Biocoustic Cochlear Americas ECR Ethicon Endo-Surgery Grace Medical Gyrus Hill Dermaceuticals, Inc. Karl Storz Life Cell Medtronic ENT Med-El Corporation, USA Merck Nautilus Surgical OmniGuide, Inc. Porex Surgical Synthes CMF Takeda Pharmaceuticals

The VSO Annual Meeting at the Charlottesville Omni on April 22-24, 2010, was a tremendous success. We believe that the academic program was stellar and that the VSO meeting benefited greatly from its affiliation with the UVA Fitz-Hugh Conference. The 2011 meeting will be in Norfolk, Virginia, and we intend to try to emulate this past year’s excellent program in many ways.

I would encourage you to try to recruit your otolaryngology colleagues and partners to the VSO, as our organization will gain strength in numbers and unity in battle with upcoming legislative issues. On the horizon is a movement by speech-language pathologists to secure state approval, allowing them the right to perform endoscopic evaluations without otolaryngologist supervision. You may recall that the VSO was recently instrumental in working with legislators to defeat regulation changes proposed by the Board of Hearing Aid Specialists, which would delete the requirement of an otolaryngologists to medically clear a child for hearing aids.

An additional benefit of membership in the VSO is the “VSO Member Alert”, which is an electronic newsletter that will keep you abreast of important legislative issues and medical field developments, and provides VSO updates regarding events and upcoming activities.

The VSO academic programs have been involved with head and neck screening programs throughout the state. Dr. Jeffery Kuhn is working on setting up an otolaryngology-head and neck surgery screening at upcoming NASCAR events in Richmond. Our Board and I are very interested in trying to make the VSO work for you, and wonder whether the membership has an interest in opening a “chatroom” to discuss complex patient management issues in a HIPAA-compliant manner through the VSO member list. Please do not hesitate to contact me, should you have any questions. I am certain that Ms. Jane Davis, Society Manager, will welcome any inquiries, as well. She can be reached at 804-622-8135 or via web contact at left.

With best regards,

Daniel W. Karakla, MD, FACS
President