Abstract
12 June 2015 – 11:00 a.m.
Good morning SVM members, guests and visitors. Welcome to the 26th Annual Meeting of the Society for Vascular Medicine!
I would like to begin by recognizing and thanking Jerry Bartholomew, President-elect of SVM, along with the Scientific Program Committee, for putting together what has been a fantastic program. Great topics, expert speakers, and a very inspiring Founders’ Lecture from Dr Victor Dzau yesterday.
I also want to recognize Heather Gornik and Marie Gerhard-Herman for again creating an outstanding vascular ultrasound course that will begin tomorrow. Great work!
I want to take a moment and thank some of the people who have made this great meeting possible. This includes our team from Kellen Company: Lyn Maddox, the meetings manager, Jennifer Dubanski the exhibits coordinator, and Patricia Sullivan communications manager. I would also like to recognize Greg Schultz, Group Vice President of the Kellen Company, who has been our partner now for at least six years. On behalf of the Society, I want to express the gratitude I feel for his support and expertise. I also want to give a special thanks to Lee Ann Clark of Kellen; Lee Ann has been completely invaluable to me in my two-year tenure as President. The SVM presidency is a rewarding but difficult job, and one that presents a number of surprising challenges, usually unscheduled, that require being available to address situations that are quite unfamiliar. There is simply no way I could have done this without Lee Ann’s help, advice, and ability to work with the very unfriendly schedules of myself and the other officers.
As I reflect on my two years as President, and my more than 20 years of SVM participation, I cannot tell you how proud I am of you, the members of SVM. I have never been as excited about this organization, or about being a part of it, as I am today. As I am fond of saying, this is a great time to be alive! We live in a wonderful world of unprecedented opportunity and innovation. Likewise, it is a great time to be a member of the SVM! The Society has never been stronger. This Society has never been more important. And the Society has, in my opinion, never been so respected for its relevance. Allow me to tell you some of the reasons why I am so excited about the Society today, and looking forward to entering our second quarter century.
Last year, we enjoyed a wonderfully self-indulgent exercise in nostalgia, celebrating all we have accomplished in 25 years. As we did, we reviewed some of the many fundamental challenges the Society faced in those 25 years. 1 Today, I am excited about what we are doing, and what we are going to do in the next 25 years.
Let’s talk about some of the impressive things that SVM members are doing. As you all know, Mark Creager will begin his term as President of the American Heart Association this year. He will also become Director of the Heart and Vascular Institute at Dartmouth. This is not just great news for Mark. It is not just very deserving recognition for his many accomplishments. It is also great news for the specialty of vascular medicine. Think about it: a lifelong vascular medicine specialist, director of a leading vascular medicine program, is president of the American Heart Association. Not only that, but now Dartmouth joins the ranks of institutions with an outstanding vascular medicine program. On a personal note, I owe Mark a great gratitude for his example, his leadership, and his wise counsel. As a society, we owe Mark the same for our entire specialty.
That brings me to Josh Beckman. As you all know, Josh is leaving the Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he has been more than a force to be reckoned with clinically, but also personally responsible for training dozens of Brigham cardiology fellows. The BWH fellows from the Beckman era will no doubt have as much gratitude for his mentorship, as they will stories to tell. As he leaves the Brigham and goes to Vanderbilt, we again all benefit from this recognition of his talents and skills. Furthermore, overnight, Vanderbilt – already a powerhouse academic institution – will join the ranks of important vascular medicine programs. No one is more responsible for the resurgence and re-purposing of SVM than Josh. On a personal note, he has been a supporter and friend to me like no other, and for that I am truly grateful.
Another member of SVM deserves special mention. Herb Aronow, a member of the SVM Board of Trustees, and newly elected Secretary of SVM, has provided exceptional leadership as chair of the PVD Council of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). He has also been Michigan Governor of the ACC, a position he will surrender now as he takes on a leadership role at Brown University. Like the career moves of Josh and Mark, this is great news not only for Herb and Brown, but for the specialty of vascular medicine and for SVM. Herb joins a vibrant vascular medicine program at Brown, bringing a national presence.
Raghu Kolluri has not only done a wonderful job as treasurer for the Society, but he has brought enthusiasm and experience to new initiatives. The fellows’ course offered as part of this year’s SVM Annual Meeting, is a result of Raghu’s energy, enthusiasm, experience running meetings and fundraising. It has added a wonderful new dimension to the meeting, and will introduce dozens of trainees to our Society.
Last year from this podium I told you that my two older boys were both contemplating applying to medical school. I am very proud to report that they have both been accepted to medical school, and will be classmates at the University of Michigan. a But as my boys face medical school, I am not really sure whether to be pleased or frightened. Between the reorganization of healthcare, the board certification crisis, decreasing reimbursement, incredible student debt, EPIC – there are ample reasons to be concerned. But I say again, and I said to them – it’s a great time to be alive! It’s also a great time to be in medicine! The challenges and therefore the opportunities have never been greater. As Dr Dzau said in his lecture, we have the opportunity and privilege, as well as the responsibility, to take medicine to the next level. To explore not just technological and scientific innovations, but to fashion a healthcare system that is more patient-friendly, more collaborative, and focused on creating the best patient experience. The SVM is uniquely positioned to be a major force in the creation of healthcare in the 21st century. We could not be more relevant. As a multidisciplinary specialty and society, we embody and champion the collaborative approach to healthcare. This has been our mission from the start. What others in medicine are trying to accomplish in terms of patient-centered, multidisciplinary care, has been our passion for 25 years.
The past couple of years have seen a plethora of SVM projects that have been the result of our collaborative, multidisciplinary nature. We have very successfully tapped into our reservoir of talent, and reasserted ourselves as experts in the delivery of best care for patients with vascular disease. As a society, we are much more of a creative force then we were five years ago, and I believe we provide much more value for our members as a result. Through the hard work and creativity of past and present leadership, particularly that of Josh Beckman, SVM has reinvented itself by discovering who we were in the first place – a multidisciplinary reservoir of expertise, not only of procedural or technical skills but also vascular medicine expertise – and how to apply our technical skills. In many real ways, we are a different society than five years ago. Aditya Sharma’s interviews posted on the SVM website (www.vsacularmed.org), webinars that the education committee has created under the leadership of Rob McBane and Diane Treat-Jacobson, and Heather Gornik and the journal’s editors’ picks (http://vmj.sagepub.com/cgi/collection) are just a few of the examples of this energy.
As I mentioned last year, the Society for Vascular Surgery and the Vascular Quality Initiative reached out to us to ask SVM to take a leadership role in the creation of a medical management module in their quality improvement registry for peripheral artery disease (PAD). I am proud to say that the work on this registry is now well underway. The Vascular and Endovascular Surgical Society reached out to SVM and asked us to collaborate on their annual meeting. Heather Gornik and Marie Gerhard-Herman responded by creating a well-received vascular ultrasound course for their meeting.
Next month, SVM will be a part of a unique coalition testifying at a Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) meeting about the importance of reimbursement for treatment for PAD. This represents an organized effort with representatives from SCAI, AHA, ACC, SVM, SIR, and VIVA.
SVM is also well underway with a healthcare services project sponsored by BMS/Pfizer, and in collaboration with the University of Michigan. Dr Geoff Barnes, a member of the Society and new faculty member at the University of Michigan, successfully responded to a request for proposals from BMS/Pfizer to develop shared decision-making tools for choosing anticoagulant therapy in atrial fibrillation, partnering with SVM.
These collaborations are not only making the Society better for its members, but improving the state of knowledge of vascular disease. I believe SVM is responding to Dr Dzau’s challenges and charge to us. Our members are building the evidence base for evidence-based medicine. Our members are contributing to the science of vascular disease. Our members are working collaboratively, representing and partnering with all specialties to improve healthcare for patients with vascular disease. I am proud to say that the Society has never been better positioned to pursue the mission set out for us by Dr Dzau and our 13 visionary founders 26 years ago. 1
I am very proud and humbled to have had the chance to serve the Society as I have in many different roles in the past decade. Thank you for that opportunity. Thank you all for your dedication, expertise, and leadership in making this Society what it is. Other than my family, I can’t think of any group I am prouder to be a part of. I would paraphrase the great Bobby Jones by saying, you could remove from my professional life everything except my experiences in SVM, and I would still have had a rich professional life. Thank you.
Footnotes
a
The wit of Josh Beckman again rings in my ears. Josh once told me: ‘You’re the only person at your level I know whose kids are smarter than you’. Thanks, Josh—I think. I’ve always believed that success is achieved by surrounding oneself with people who are smarter than you, and that includes the dinner table in my house!