How the Coronavirus Pandemic May Change Medical Societies and Their Gatherings

by Renée Bacher •

Upcoming Virtual AAO-HNS Meeting

AAO-HNS will hold its annual meeting virtually this year, presenting content over a six-week period from Sept. 13 through Oct. 25. The meeting will kick off with Joel Selanikio, MD, a TED speaker, inventor, emergency responder, and consultant working in the fields of technology, healthcare, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, social innovation, big data, child health, and disaster response. Dr. Selanikio will discuss COVID-19 and its relationship to the future of otolaryngology practice; a Q&A session will follow. Forty-five hours of live content over the next three days will follow. Breaks for networking, wellness activities, exhibitor appointments, and more will be built into the schedule of live events.

Immediately following the opening ceremony, attendees will have access to more than 300 scheduled hours of new on-demand content, available through the meeting platform for several months and then subsequently on the AAO-HNS education website.

“We’re collaborating with a number of the specialty societies to augment content with reciprocal access during the designated week, focusing on their respective areas of expertise,” said James C. Denneny III, MD, AAO-HNS executive vice president and CEO. “These education sessions will run in the evening during the week, and selective weekend hours, with both prerecorded and live sessions with Q&A and chat room functionality.” Included will be:

  • Allergy/Rhinology Week
  • Otology/Neurotology and Sleep Medicine Week
  • Laryngology/Broncho-Esophagology and Pediatric Otolaryngology Week
  • Head & Neck and Endocrine Week
  • Comprehensive Otolaryngology and Facial Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery Week