2017 AACA Meeting – Thursday, July 20

This is the 2017 Meeting of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) in Minneapolis, MN. This 34th meeting of the association, gets together over 300 clinical anatomists, anatomists, physicians, and students from all over the world.

Last day of the meeting! In the morning, there was a poster session and a platform session dedicated to the neck and lower limb.  Now, I must confess that as much as I wanted to attend the meeting, I decided to go somewhere else and skip the morning session… I should feel bad about this, but I do not!!

With two other attendees to the AACA meeting I went to the Wangensteen Historical Library which has a collection of over 80,000 rare books.  We met with the Curator, Lois Hendrickson, Christopher Herzberg, and Emily Beck.

First, we visited the current exhibit, “Medical Exchanges: Mapping the Human Body in Japan and China” with incredible books, medical posters, and artifacts referencing anatomy, surgery, acupuncture, botanical remedies, etc. Then we went into the reading room where they already had a display of books on anatomy, surgery, histology, etc.

We spent at least four hours reading and admiring these books and the knowledge they contain. One of our discussions was on the fact that today there is a great deal of information “lost” in these books because they have not been digitized, or because many are written in languages which the average researched does not master.

For those who read this blog, you know that I am collector of antique medical books and the opportunity to be at this incredible library was unique. There were so many books that is difficult to list. Authors like Bidloo, Hooke, Verhayen, Mascagni, Vesalius, etc. Books like “De Muto Cordis”, “Micrographia”, “De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Libri Septem”, and “De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Epitome” are some of the jewels that we were able to admire.

Personally, the opportunity to spend time with these books was invaluable. There are only 13 known “De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Epitome” books in the world. It is priceless and who knows what its monetary value would be if any makes it to the antiquarian market. Being able to read, admire and touch this book was the “epitome” of my time at the library (pun intended).

Unfortunately, for some unknown reason I lost all the pictures I took of this occasion, so I hope to get some from the colleagues that went to the library with me.

Back at the AACA Meeting, we had a Medical Terminology Committee meeting, followed by the AACA Business Meeting, and then the closing banquet with the presentation of Awards. The last order of business was the presidential transition. Neil Norton, PhD ended his presidential tenure with the closing of the 2017 AACA Meeting and Marios Loukas, MD, PhD begins his two-year as President of the AACA.

Next year the AACA meeting will be in Atlanta! See you there!

2017 AACA Meeting – Wednesday, July 19.

This is the 2017 Meeting of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists in Minneapolis, MN. This 34th meeting of the association, gets together over 300 clinical anatomists, anatomists, physicians, and students from all over the world.

Second day of the meeting, by now I have met most all my old friends from the AACA, and I have started making some new ones… I really like this meeting.

The meeting started with the poster session where I am a judge. I made it a point to look at all the posters yesterday and the quality of the presentations is impressive. I am humbled to have to judge so much talent and feel that many deserve the award for the best poster presentation.

The platform sessions for the day were dedicated to the Upper Limb and Education.

There was a special session dedicated to the topic “The Legal and Ethic Consideration of Being the Guardian of the Gift”. This session dealt with the legal and ethical implications of curating and keeping old collections of fetal tissue, osteology, teratology, and anatomical specimens.

I also attended the Clinical Anatomy Terminology Committee meeting… it was fun. We formed groups and tried to make anatomical definitions according to new standards being developed by the AACA.

The day ended with a social event (food and drinks) where we were treated to samples of books from the Wangensteen library (NO TOUCHING) and medical devices from the Bakken museum. What a day!!!

More nice stuff tomorrow!!!

2017 AACA Meeting – Tuesday, July 18.

This is the 2017 Meeting of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists in Minneapolis, MN. This 34th meeting of the association, gets together over 300 clinical anatomists, anatomists, physicians, and students from all over the world.

The meeting started with the official welcome by the president of the AACA, Neil S. Norton, Ph. D., and the welcome by our local Minnesota host Tucker W. LeBien, Ph.D.

Unfortunately, our Honored Member James D. Collins, M.D., is sick and could not attend. We all wish him well.

The rest of the day was spent in poster sessions, the Tech Fair, and a reception where new AACA members can meet our mentors and possibly connect throughout their careers. The AACA aims to help its members through these activities.

We also had time to visit the exhibit hall where our sponsors can present their products. We sincerely thank them for their contribution.

One of the presentations that caught my attention was the use of augmented reality in anatomy, where you can see an anatomical structure floating in the air superimposed on the environment. 3D anatomical resources were also presented by the exhibitors.

One of the highlights of my day was to meet again with Victor M. Spitzer, Ph.D., (Honored Member AACA 2014) and talk about meeting in Colorado at his lab, and the incredible revolution in anatomy that he started with The Visual Human Project. I invited him to become a contributor to our blog…. Hope he accepts!

The day ended with some of the attendees to the meeting going to see a New York Yankees vs, the Minnesota Twins baseball game…. I stayed. Unfortunately for our hosts the NYY won 6-3.

More nice stuff tomorrow!!!

2017 AACA Meeting – Monday, July 17.

This is the 2017 Meeting of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists in Minneapolis, MN. This 34th meeting of the association, gets together over 300 clinical anatomists, anatomists, physicians, and students from all over the world.

We started with a judge’s meeting. I will be one of many judges that will evaluate the many posters presented by mostly new AACA members and students sponsored by an AACA member. This is a very important activity, as the winner will be presented with an award. Each poster presenter will explain their scientific research and answer questions from the judges.

After the judge’s meeting, it is time for the inaugural reception. This is the time to meet with old friends and colleagues as well as an opportunity to welcome first time attendees and new AACA members. Luckily, they are easily identifiable by a green badge.

I am very lucky to be here, and looking forward to tomorrow with the inaugural session, the tech fairs, posters sessions, and platform session on the torso.

The following post and pictures will take you to the Facebook page of Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc.

This is the first time I embed a Facebook article from https://www.facebook.com/CAAInc. 

 During this week, I will be attending the 2017 Meeting of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists in Minneapolis, MN. This 34th meeting of the association, gets together over 300 clinical anatomists, anatomists, physicians, and students from all over the world.

I will try to post pictures, and excerpts from some of the lectures, presentations and posters. After the meeting, there will be a postgraduate course which I will also attend.

The meeting will be held at the Minneapolis Marriott City Center Convention Center and is hosted by the University of Minnesota Medical School.

So, let’s start with travel! I flew N21315 to Minneapolis. The flight was IFR, uneventful, at 12,000 ft. (with oxygen support) and landed at KSTP (St. Paul Downtown airport). I decided to post some pictures of the flight and the airplane. 
Now I am getting ready for the judge’s meeting and then the reception. I will be posting some pictures tomorrow!

We are getting closer and closer to the objective, that is, to fund and find the lost grave of  Andreas Vesalius, recognized worldwide as the Father of Modern Anatomy. We are setting up the dates for the next phase and preparing the logistics for the crews from Crete and Belgium.

The quest for the lost grave of Andreas Vesalius continues, the permits have been obtained, and we only have the last hurdle to finish, the funding of the project trough our GoFundMe page.

Theo Dirix, a contributor to Medical Terminology Daily, now has an offer that you may like. He wrote the book "In Search of Andreas Vesalius" which relates the beginning of this Quest. The book is out-of-print today, but there are a few copies available. By donating 30 € (US$35)you'll receive one of the last available copies and you'll be mentioned in the sequel of the book that will be dedicated to the next stage of the project.

The project is private and funded by those who believe we still have an opportunity to find the lost grave. For more information, you are welcome to read Theo Dirix's article : "To put it in another way: where do we have to look for Vesalius's grave?" 

Here are some reviews for Theo Drix's book "In Search of Andreas Vesalius" :

Vivian Nutton: "I read with pleasure and wry amusement Theo’s account (..) and was reminded of reading the autobiographical account by Stephen Miller of his time as head of the American archaeological school and the boss of the Nemea excavations in the 1980s and 90s (...)

Cover of the book by Theo Dirix.
Click on the image for a larger depiction

Jacqueline Vons: " here is a book " without claim " but well documented, which is committed to tracing the research made to zakynthos by the author and a team of doctors, historians and artists to find the tomb of vesalius (1514-1564).

(Jacqueline Vons est professeur agrégé de lettres classiques, docteur ès études latines, enseignant-chercheur habilité à diriger des recherches. Elle a enseigné le latin et l'histoire de la médecine au CESR et à la faculté de Lettres de Tours et a assuré pendant plusieurs années des enseignements complémentaires en sciences humaines à la faculté de Médecine. Ses thèmes de recherche sont orientés vers l'histoire de la médecine et notamment autour d'André Vésale (éditions, traductions, transcriptions), de la pensée et des pratiques médicales en France à l'époque moderne ainsi que des textes médicaux latins centrés principalement sur l'anatomie.)

Maurits Biesbrouck: in search of Andreas Vesalius is so well researched and written, that if the further search for his grave completely shutting down (something we hope not! ) and only after a few decades be rebooted again, the perfect future researchers would know to where you came, and the wire without wasting time we can again. It is a very detailed history of the search that has already been made, a solid status and simultaneously present an extremely valuable tool for further extrapolating.

(Dr. Maurits Biesbrouck has a lifelong interest in Andreas Vesalius. He translated the first book of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem into Dutch, compiled an annually updated Vesalius-bibliography and wrote many articles on his life and works, many as a co-author with Omer Steeno (Leuven, Belgium) and Theodoor Goddeeris (Kortrijk, Belgium). See www.andreasvesalius.be.)

UPDATE: April 25, 2018.  Theo Dirix's new book is already published, the names of the contributors have been incorporated in the book. The title of the new book is "In Search of Andreas Vesalius The Quest for the Grave, Lost and not yet found". Dr. Miranda