Recapping the NDT Annual Conference

The following is a report from the 2016 Annual Meeting of the ASET-The Neurodiagnostic Society as recounted by Marc Williams, BE, FASET, R.EEG/EP T., CNIM, CLTM, Program Director of Neurodiagnostic Technology at Concorde's Grand Prairie, Texas campus.

Last week, the annual meeting of the ASET-The Neurodiagnostic Society was held at the Wyndham Hotel in Pittsburgh, Penn. With more than 600 registered attendees, the meeting offered a lot of interesting talks, courses, poster presentations and vendors for everyone to get something.

The meeting started off with a before-conference workshop for Program Directors hosted by Co-A-NDT to help them with tools, and forms used for annual reports. The standards were used to help the Program Directors better understand what is required and ways to make the annual report easier. The Program Directors came away with some new tools and answers to their questions to help with their annual reports and a better understanding of the standards.

Neurodiagnostic Technology keynote lecture

As the conference got underway, one of the keynote lectures was entitled "It's Never Too Late to Make a Difference with Neurodiagnostics," given by Nikesh I. Ardeshna, MD, MS. The lecture was both enlightening and educational with some case histories as examples of the use and need for Neurodiagnostic Technology. At the end of the lecture, the floor was open for questions and a few members stepped up to the microphone to ask questions and get answers.

The conference was divided into subspecialties to allow members to pick and choose the areas they were more interested in. They were allowed to move from room to room to be able to capture the lectures of their interest. Areas included Intra-Operative Neuro-Monitoring, Nerve Conduction Studies, Long Term Monitoring, and Epilepsy. These are areas within the profession that continue to grow, and new techniques and information for the technologists interested in them is presented at such conferences as this one and through articles in the professional journal. Talks went on all day with breaks for lunch and the exhibitor's hall open for all to check out new technology and pick up information on equipment and get little advertisement items to take back to their departments.

Neurodiagnostic Technology business meeting

At the annual business meeting, which was held during one of the daily lunches, awards and certificates were presented to members who have given of their time in support of the organization. To cap off the conference, a night of music was presented by the "Dentrites," a group of musicians made up of members of the organizations. A good time is always had when this group performs. On the last night, members were offered an opportunity to attend a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game to close out the week.

Neurodiagnostic Technology takeaways

Members left with new information on treatments, diagnostic techniques and an insight into new technology coming out in the future, as well as those already on the market. Next year's conference is planned for Tucson, Ariz. in early August, and if next year's meeting is anything like this year's, I am sure the attendance will be just as big, if not bigger.