ASRM Today: Bonus Episode: Reflections at ASRM 2024

ASRM Today explores the highlights of the ASRM 2024 meeting in Denver, focusing on attendees' experiences and key sessions. Host Jeffrey Hayes interviews leaders in reproductive medicine, including Mindy Christianson, Amy Sparks, and William Catherino, who share insights on professional development, advancing patient care, and fostering connections. Topics discussed range from SRS plenary sessions and PGT advancements to fibroid research and the implementation of donor offspring information laws. The episode underscores the meeting's value in education, networking, and shaping the future of reproductive medicine.

ASRM 2024 in Denver, Colorado was a tremendous success for both our members and the organization. From my end, logging my 10th meeting had me wanting to talk with others on their experiences and what makes a great meeting for them, what they look forward to. Today on the show, I talk with a few I had the privilege to talk with while at ASRM 2024.

I'm Jeffrey Hayes and this is ASRM Today. Welcome to ASRM Today, a podcast that takes a deeper dive into the current topics in reproductive medicine. Everyone's time at our meeting is precious.

And in the last few years, we at ASRM Today have been able to record some wonderful conversations from the convention centers. As I said at the top of the show, I wanted to focus this year on the experience of ASRM 2024 and get a feeling for what makes it worthwhile to attendees. First, I spoke with Mindy Christianson, who is Section Chief, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, REI Fellowship Program Director, Practice Director at the Cleveland Clinic Fertility Center.

Well, I think it's a really exciting meeting for me. It's a really action-packed meeting as well. I'm honored to be on the Executive Board for ASRM this year as the SRS President, the Society for Reproductive Surgeons.

And so I've been involved with the board activities and kind of helping with the planning for ASRMs. We've had some planning meetings, but I'm really excited to kind of continue my presidential leadership with SRS. And we're having a reception tomorrow with all of our members of SRS.

And we're going to award the recipient of SRS Distinguished Surgeon Award tomorrow to Dr. Tommaso Falcone. So we're very excited about that. And then we also have the plenary session for SRS, and that's going to be Dr. Samantha Pfeifer, who's going to be speaking about malaria and anomalies.

So we're very excited about that as well. Are you going to be able to fit in anything for yourself as far as, is there anything that you're looking forward to that you can attend as far as a plenary or any type of session? Well, I'm planning to attend as many of the SRS talks that I can. I'm also moderating a session for SART, for SART Research Outcomes.

So I'm excited to moderate that session. I'm also going to be meeting with members of the Coding Committee because I'm chair of the Coding Committee. So it'll be exciting to meet everybody in person and see them.

Yeah. Well, that's good. That's good.

Overall, how would you feel this is? How many congresses have you been to now? Well, I would say it's probably about 12 or 13. 12 or 13. And usually, what's your experience like? Well, I feel like it's kind of like going to reunion because you see people that you haven't seen for years or that you see only at ASRM.

And it's just nice to see people that you're connected through with this industry. Next was an old friend of the show, Amy Sparks, who is Director, IVF and Andrology Laboratory Center for Advanced Reproductive Care at UIHC. I was so excited about this meeting.

And this morning was the most wonderful kickoff with our plenary sessions. I think there's so much to discuss as far as advances that we've made in our field, but also continuing to work on access to care and protecting our patients' right to care. I'm thrilled when thousands of people who want to serve patients and hopefully many of them want to serve ASRM gather.

We get so much energy. And honestly, while it can be exhausting after getting through the days, my battery is recharged when I go home. So meeting with colleagues, hearing the talks, seeing the future of our field is so exciting.

Is there anything in particular that you're looking forward to specifically? I'm anxious to hear more about PGT and protecting our ability to offer PGT and trying to keep things out of the headlines. I'm also interested to see what advances have been made in the discussions with donor-conceived children. In Colorado, they're going to have an implementation of a law in 2025 for access to information for the donor offspring.

Understanding how those negotiations are going and what that's going to look like on a national level is going to be very important. We've made some big changes in SART and SART reporting, and I'm looking forward to discussing those tomorrow and giving a talk on a SART retrospective, looking at where we've come and how far we've come. It's quite amazing.

So speaking of retrospectives, though, how many meetings have you been to now? I think my first meeting was in Montreal. I think that was 1993. So I've been to most meetings, I think all meetings.

I remember my first meeting, not knowing many people, wondering how I was going to navigate this and wondering how I'd make friends. Well, I can assure you, once you step up to offer your services, volunteer to review abstracts, volunteer to serve in multiple ways in education of patients and peers, you make many friends, lifelong friends. And now at the meeting, it's just trying to respectfully get away from conversation so you can get to the talks is probably the bigger challenge, but I love it.

It's great. Finally, I had a delightful time talking with William Catherino, who is Professor and Vice Chair of Research, Department of Gynecological Surgery and Obstetrics at USUHS, also Editor-in-Chief, Fertility and Sterility Science. So much to learn here.

There's so many different topics. The challenge is that they're overlapping, and so you're running back and forth. And this is a pretty large convention center.

This is a large convention center here in Denver. Yes. Yes.

I realized that I should start wearing tennis shoes. I just think it's the dress shoe dates are coming to an end because it is quite a haul back and forth. But that being said, there's a lot of interesting topics, a lot of interesting areas, people doing really wonderful work in a wide array of reproductive diseases and infertility and menopause.

There's so much to learn here. So that's the part that I really enjoy. Now, it's a great opportunity because we're all here to be able to capitalize on the great assets and great capabilities of the magnificent people who come to these meetings, which is why I understand that we have additional meetings.

In fact, this morning at 6.45 in the morning, we had our Fibroids special interview, which was just a lovely opportunity to sit and talk about where we were with things that are important to us and how we can better both educate and advance understanding on fibroids so that we can improve health care and the lives of women suffering from fibroids. There is nothing like attending an ASRM meeting. It always provides first rate educational activities, along with the opportunities for people to connect with old and new colleagues and friends alike.

It truly is a special time for all each October. Until next time, I'm Jeffrey Hayes and this is ASRM Today. This concludes this episode of ASRM Today.

For show notes, author information, and discussions, go to asrmtoday.org. This material is copyrighted by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and may not be reproduced or used without express consent from ASRM. ASRM Today series podcasts are supported in part by the ASRM Corporate Member Council. The information and opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of ASRM and its affiliates.

These are provided as a source of general information and are not a substitute for consultation with a physician.