Abstract
On March 19,1989, 13 vascular medicine specialists met in Anaheim, California to form a professional society, initially called the Society for Vascular Medicine and Biology, that would integrate physicians and scientists to advance the discipline of vascular medicine. It was anticipated that a forum dedicated to the exchange of ideas would facilitate the translation and clinical application of research advances to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of vascular diseases. Moreover, it would provide an outlet for vascular medicine education to enhance the knowledge of physicians caring for patients with vascular disorders. Concurrent with the Society’s formation, its first official journal, the Journal of Vascular Medicine and Biology, was launched in 1989 under the stewardship of Victor Dzau, one of the Society’s founders. Its articles ranged from vascular biology, physiology and pharmacology, to thrombosis and lipid metabolism, to novel case reports and clinical reviews. Highlights included novel articles on the emerging biology of nitric oxide, endothelin, an initial description of applanation tonometry to assess the arterial pressure pulse waveform, and the first description of the Walking Impairment Questionnaire. Unfortunately, the publisher, Blackwell Scientific Publications, ceased publication of this journal after the fifth volume in 1994, and the articles did not obtain recognition in PubMed. In 1996, the Society created our current journal, Vascular Medicine, marrying the precepts of its predecessor with another journal, Vascular Medicine Reviews, published by Edward Arnold Publishers, furthering the Society’s objectives to disseminate information about the latest discoveries in vascular biology, pathophysiology, pharmacotherapeutics, imaging and interventional technologies. Sage Publications became our publisher in 2006, and we increased the frequency of issues from four to six a year in 2010.
The Journal has had a remarkable run over the ensuing 18 years, as the entire field of vascular medicine has achieved greater national and international recognition. Our name changed to the Society for Vascular Medicine in 2007 to reflect our focus in this subspecialty area. High impact medical and cardiovascular journals are embracing vascular medicine articles, as part of their repertoire, but Vascular Medicine remains the prototype of a journal that is fully dedicated to the field. It is the Society’s forum for its major documents, such as the Postgraduate Training in Vascular Medicine document1, and sanctioned intersocietal publications on vascular guidelines, competency, performance measures, and Appropriate Use Criteria2-7. It has published proceedings of Society sponsored conferences, abstracts of the Society’s annual scientific sessions, Presidential addresses, and Society news. Oft-cited original research articles on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and management of atherosclerotic peripheral vascular diseases, venous thromboembolism, chronic venous disease, lymphedema, vasospasm, and uncommon vascular disorders populate each issue, and it is one of the few venues for novel case reports and images of vascular diseases. Other highlights have included timely and comprehensive reviews, including the Trends in Vascular Medicine series, analyses of clinical trials in Vascular Viewpoint, commentaries, and book reviews.
As Editor-in-Chief for the these 18 volumes, I gratefully acknowledge the Associate Editors who have helped to shepherd Vascular Medicine during this time, especially John Tooke, Jill Belch, John Cooke, Denis Clement, William Hiatt, Jeffrey Olin, Joshua Beckman, Philip Tsao, Suman Rathbun, Michael Conte, and Christopher White, along with our Image Section Editors, Marie Gerhard-Herman and Heather Gornik, who ensured that the articles we published were novel, important, interesting, and scientifically valid. I express my heartfelt thanks also to the members of our editorial board for refereeing articles, contributing papers, and providing counsel. I am most grateful to the Journal’s managing editor, Joanne Normandin, whose enthusiasm, tireless efforts, and meticulous coordination and oversight made certain that the pathway from receipt of a manuscript through publication was efficient and seamless. I am extremely proud of the Society for Vascular Medicine, and its journal, Vascular Medicine. The seeds planted in 1989 have sprouted and grown. Vascular Medicine is thriving, and the mission is being realized as the acquisition and application of new knowledge improves the health of our patients with vascular diseases. I am delighted to pass the torch of the Journal to Heather Gornik, one of my former trainees and now an esteemed colleague. She has assembled an impressive group of Associate Editors who will carry on the remarkable progress of the Journal, and take it to new heights.
It is a rare opportunity in one’s professional life to not only step into the shoes of one’s mentor but to then choose the path to walk. For as long as I have known Mark Creager, dating back to my years as a medicine resident and then a clinical and research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, I have witnessed his profound commitment to this journal. After the patients had been seen and the ultrasounds read, he would head off to review manuscripts and prepare for an Associate Editors call. He would sometimes reference important articles published in Vascular Medicine during teaching rounds like a proud father (“we published that”). With Joanne Normandin at his side, or more likely, at her own desk immediately outside his office, Mark and Joanne have been the heart, soul, brains, and brawn of Vascular Medicine. In taking over as Editor-in-Chief, I have the opportunity to carry their legacy of excellence, commitment, and integrity forward, while at the same time perhaps taking the Journal onto a slightly different path.
The past three months have been focused on the transition of the Vascular Medicine editorial office from Boston to its new home on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. There has been so much to learn, and I am thankful to Neil Poria who has stepped in as interim managing editor while we search for the individual who will succeed the amazing Joanne Normandin. We have appointed energetic and dynamic Associate Editors: Naomi Hamburg, Anne Hamik, Esther Kim, Robert McBane, Christopher Owens, and Mehdi Shishehbor, and I am especially grateful to William Hiatt who continues to serve as an Associate Editor, providing continuity atop his profound clinical trial expertise to the peer review and selection process. We have broadened the editorial board to include a more diverse array of vascular medicine academic clinicians and researchers, experts in vascular imaging, vascular surgery, and thrombosis.
My goal is for this journal to be a vital educational and clinical tool in vascular medicine practice. We will continue to publish relevant scientific statements and guidelines. In this issue of the journal, we introduce the Vascular Disease Patient Information Page, a new section which will incorporate the latest clinical science and vascular biology to explain vascular diseases and their potential treatments to patients in simple terms. Section Editors Natalie Evans and Elizabeth Ratchford inaugurate this new feature with a review of venous thromboembolism. We want these Patient Information Pages to find their way into your examination rooms, and a link to a downloadable version of these Pages will soon be available via the Vascular Medicine and Society websites.
In the volumes to come, new clinically relevant features will be introduced, including Core Curriculum in Vascular Medicine, which will provide succinct, state-of-the clinical science updates on all aspects of our field. These reviews will be an ideal learning tool for vascular trainees preparing for board examinations as well as experienced vascular clinicians seeking to maintain their skills at the cutting edge of evidence-based practice. And yes, we will continue to publish novel case reports and vascular images. Please continue to submit them. Steven Dean, a colleague with unmatched enthusiasm for the vascular zebra, succeeds me as Images section editor.
We hope to further strengthen the ties between Vascular Medicine and the Society. This journal is the printed voice of our Society. The Society for Vascular Medicine Communication Page will provide a regular venue for updates to the Journal readership, and we will continue to work with SAGE to allow for additional linkage of electronic content between Vascular Medicine and the Society for Vascular Medicine websites.
While a new home office has been established, fresh energy and experience brought to the editorial board, and new sections introduced, the core of this journal will remain the same: high quality original research and review articles. We have broadened Vascular Medicine’s scope to reflect emerging areas of research and clinical care in vascular disease (thrombosis, vascular imaging). With the Associate Editors, we are working hard to further shorten our time to first decision and time to Online First publication. We want to make Vascular Medicine the must read and must cite publication in our field.
As I begin my tenure as Editor-in-Chief, I ask you to renew your support for Vascular Medicine and join me as we embark down a new path. Recommend an article in this issue to a trainee — or better yet, discuss it at a journal club. Cite one of our seminal research articles in your work. Contact the editorial office to discuss a concept for a review article (
Creager MA, Hirsch AT, Cooke JP, et al. Postgraduate training in vascular medicine: Proposed requirements and standards. Vasc Med 2003; 8: 47-52.
Gerhard-Herman M, Gardin JM, Jaff M, et al. Guidelines for noninvasive vascular laboratory testing: A report from the American Society of Echocardiography and the Society for Vascular Medicine and Biology. Vasc Med 2006; 11: 183-200.
Olin JW, Allie DE, Belkin M, et al. ACCF/AHA/ACR/SCAI/SIR/SVM/SVN/SVS 2010 performance measures for adults with peripheral artery disease. A report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Performance Measures, the American College of Radiology, the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions, the Society for Interventional Radiology, the Society for Vascular medicine, the Society for Vascular Nursing, and the Society for Vascular Surgery (Writing Committee to Develop Clinical Performance Measures for Peripheral Artery Disease). Vasc Med 2010; 15: 481-512.
Rooke TW, Hirsch AT, Misra S, et al. 2011 accf/aha focused update of the guideline for the management of patients with peripheral artery disease (updating the 2005 guideline). Vasc Med 2011; 16: 452-476.
Brott TG, Halperin JL, Abbara S, et al. 2011 ASA/ACCF/AHA/AANN/AANS/ACR/ASNR/CNS/SAIP/ SCAI/SIR/SNIS/SVM/SVS guideline on the management of patients with extracranial carotid and vertebral artery disease: Executive summary: A report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines, and the American Stroke Association, American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, American College of Radiology, American Society of Neuroradiology, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Society of Atherosclerosis Imaging and Prevention, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, Society of Interventional Radiology, Society of Neurointerventional Surgery, Society for Vascular Medicine, and Society for Vascular Surgery. Vasc Med 2011; 16: 35-77.
Mohler ER, 3rd, Gornik HL, Gerhard-Herman M, et al. ACCF/ACR/AIUM/ASE/ASN/ICAVL/SCAI/SCCT/SIR/SVM/SVS 2012 Appropriate Use Criteria for peripheral vascular ultrasound and physiological testing part I: Arterial ultrasound and physiological testing: A report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation Appropriate Use Criteria Task Force, American College of Radiology, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, American Society of Echocardiography, American Society of Nephrology, Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratories, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, Society for Interventional Radiology, Society for Vascular Medicine, and Society for Vascular Surgery. Vasc Med 2012; 17: 249-282.
Gornik HL, Gerhard-Herman MD, Misra S, et al. ACCF/ACR/AIUM/ASE/IAC/SCAI/SCVS/SIR/SVM/SVS/SVU 2013 Appropriate Use Criteria for peripheral vascular ultrasound and physiological testing part II: Testing for venous disease and evaluation of hemodialysis access: A report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation Appropriate Use Criteria Task Force. Vasc Med 2013; 62: 649-665.