The ASSFN 2020 Biennial Meeting was another casualty of the pandemic. To showcase the exciting developments in our field and feature the high-quality research submitted as abstracts, ASSFN hosted a Virtual Scientific Update on Sunday, June 28, 2020 via Zoom.
The program featured the presidential address by ASSFN President Robert Gross, MD, PhD, FAANS; keynote lectures by scientists Ed Boyden, PhD, and Matthew Botvinick, MD, PhD; and the Honored Guest lecture by renowned epilepsy surgeon Dennis Spencer, MD. Invited faculty talks covered the breadth of our field, including topics on movement disorders, epilepsy, pain, psychiatric neurosurgery and radiosurgery. The Top 10 Abstracts session featured talks from established investigators, residents and students ranked in the top 10 out of more than 200 submissions. Altogether, the nearly 300 registrants for the event enjoyed six hours of S&F neurosurgery content from the comfort of their homes.
Though not a substitute for the rich discussions and interactions that typify our Society’s Biennial Meeting, we hope that the content delivered by this virtual event provided a useful infusion of ideas for our membership’s clinical practice and research aspirations. On behalf of the ASSFN Board and the Scientific Planning Committee, as well as Meeting Chair and Past-President Emad Eskandar, MD, FAANS, I would like to thank the faculty and speakers for taking the time to prepare and deliver their presentations, April Martin and the CNS for their organizational efforts and our industry sponsors for their support. A recording of the event and the preceding industry-sponsored session is available at www.cns.org/assfn.