To: the ESVS committee

From: Maysam Shehab.

I am 5th year resident in vascular surgery from Israel.

I have heard about the ESVS annual meeting from the ESVS website, and I was excited to learn about all of the academic activity in the meeting alongside the scientific program and social activity (maybe it will get me closer toward fulfilling my dream to learn and work in the major hospitals in Europe), therefore I decided to sign up.

I have also submitted one of my abstracts which was later accepted for poster presentation.

I have attended many international conferences so far, but I have never seen such a diverse and rich academic workshops and seminars program for residents.

The scientific program was diverse and updated and approached many important aspects.However I would recommend that the workshops would be spread over longer period of time, and not 2 days, so we could join more workshops and yet manage to enjoy the scientific program. And to add workshops on cadavers, especially in the aorta field, since it is has been conquered by the endovascular field and residents has less and less in open aorta including exposure

The workshops were very organized, the doctors who guided us were very experienced with lots of patient and well to teach, the demos are very close to the real thing.

I had a chance to talk to senior doctors regarding vascular surgery, endovascular techniques, fellowship programs and future career options. These one on one talks are not something that is easy to get in big commercial conferences, but this was not the spirit of this meeting. A blessed change.

In addition, I have had a chance to meet lots of other residents from all around Europe (and one from Taiwan), listening to their own residency experience and trying to take tips to improve my residency program. It was also a chance to help me on decide on places for fellowship in Europe.

I am looking forward to upcoming ESVS workshops, and for the meeting next year.

Unfortunately I could not find financial support (usually given by industrial companies) to come to the conference. And in my case it meansflight and accommodation expenses in addition to the conferenceand workshops. Thankfully, the ESVS grant made it possible for me to come and enjoy this wonderfully experience.

As for Lyon, I have never thought about travelling to Lyon, but I was surprised to learn how beautiful it is and how rich its cuisine. So perhaps the fact that this annual meeting is not fixed on a single famous city\usually capital city is important so the attendants would see beautiful famous but perhaps less touristic cities.

So thank you for that.

I hope more resident from Israel will come to your meeting, until today our participation in the ESVS meetings were scarce but I plane to do my part to change that.

Hoping that your workshops would be part from our residents' academic qualifications.

Best regards,

Maysam shehab

October 2017