31st SVM Scientific Sessions Highlights

The 31^st annual Society for Vascular Medicine (SVM) Scientific Sessions (#SVM20) were held virtually on Saturday, September 12, 2020. Owing to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, we convened several months later than usual, without handshakes or hugs, connecting with one another digitally instead.

In total, there were approximately 345 attendees who joined us over the day-long session from 33 US states and 15 countries (Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, India, Jordan, Mexico, Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). These vascular medicine specialists included attending physicians, fellows, residents and students, advanced practice providers, nurses, technologists, and attendees from other disciplines. Among them were clinicians, researchers, educators, and patient advocates.

Our meeting opened with a session on the ‘Year in Vascular Medicine’ moderated by Drs Michael Jaff and Esther Kim. Thought leaders Drs Naomi Hamburg, Geoff Barnes, Jeff Olin, Ehrin Armstrong, Aditya Sharma, and Suman Wasan reviewed the latest developments in our field, including ‘Basic and Translational Science’, ‘Anticoagulants and Antiplatelets’, ‘Non-Atherosclerotic Arterial Disease’, ‘Arterial Intervention’, ‘Venous Thrombosis/Intervention’, and ‘Lymphatic Disease’, respectively.

Next, our esteemed colleague and leader, Dr Raghu Kolluri, delivered his Presidential Address, where he reviewed the SVM’s strategic goals, including growing membership, ensuring long-term financial viability, gaining specialty recognition, and augmenting vascular medicine education. He also shared with us the story of his immigrant roots, the challenges he faced as a foreign medical graduate, and how the inspiration and mentorship afforded him by his parents, both in the medical field as well, helped pave a path for President Raghu to follow. His entire address is published on the SVM YouTube channel and is included in this issue of Vascular Medicine. ¹

This year, our coffee breaks were also virtual, during which time attendees visited our virtual exhibitors. During the Jay D Coffman Young Investigator Award session, four young academic standouts, Drs Frank M Davis (University of Michigan), Niveditta Ramkumar (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center), Vittal Hejjaji (Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute), and Gloria Kim (University of Michigan), competed to see who had made the most substantial contributions to our field this past year.

‘Vascular Jeopardy’ maintained its fan-favorite status as Drs Greg Piazza and Rob McBane led us through a fun-filled, humorous hour of educational entertainment that kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Competition was stiff, but ultimately two standouts reigned supreme: Drs Stan Henkin (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center) and Andres Vargas (Mercy Clinic).

During our virtual lunch hour, Drs Mitch Silver, Michael Jolly, and Sara Anderson presented a symposium on ‘How to Build a VTE Center of Excellence’, sponsored by Inari Medical. We reconvened for the second half of our annual meeting for International Cases Over Cocktails, as five cases from around the world were presented by Drs Fernando Belcastro, Eunjung Choi, Romelie Tuplano, Mustanser Badar, and John Joel Javier, and were discussed by our esteemed moderators and panelists, including Drs Terri Carman, Elizabeth Ratchford, Tes Abola, Ana Casanegra, Aldo Tabares, and Guillame Mahe.

Our last didactic session brought us the latest on COVID-19 and its implications for vascular disease. After hearing from our prestigious speakers Drs Greg Piazza, Ido Weinberg, Yogen Kanthi, William Hiatt, and Beverley Hunt, moderators Drs Mitch Weinberg and Sanjay Misra helped us amalgamate and integrate the tsunami of data that have emerged in this area over recent months.

The much anticipated SVM Awards Ceremony rounded out our afternoon. During that time, Raghu Kolluri delivered the Jess R Young Outstanding Vascular Medicine Educator Award to Dr R Eugene Zierler, bestowed the Master of SVM distinction upon Dr Suman W Wasan, and awarded a Presidential Citation to Anticoagulation Forum, accepted by Founder and Past President, Dr Jack Ansell. Dr Scott Kinlay revealed Dr Frank M Davis from the University of Michigan as the Jay D Coffman Young Investigator Award winner for his work ‘JMJD3 Regulates Macrophage-mediated Inflammation in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms’. We concluded with a Janssen-sponsored session where Dr Jay Bishop spoke about ‘Clinical Insights in Chronic CAD/PAD: Reducing the Risk of Major Cardiovascular Events’.

Although our meeting agenda this time around was somewhat abridged, what it lacked in quantity was made up for in quality. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of our program committee and subcommittees, SVM staff (including Emily Burch, Jessica Hughson-Andrade, Alex Werner, Meagan Comerford, Eric Bailey, Patrick Dougherty, Oiuna Badmaeva, Patricia Ferchland-Bingham, and others), non-CME symposium sponsors (Inari Medical and Janssen), industry sponsors/educational grant providers (Boston Scientific, Gore, Medtronic, and Siemens), and exhibitors (Abbott, Rooke, and Shockwave Medical).

The 2021 SVM Scientific Sessions (#SVM21) will be here before we know it. Whether face-to-face, virtual, or in a hybrid format, SVM will be there to bring you the latest and greatest that vascular medicine has to offer.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay engaged.

Herb Aronow, MD, MPH, FSVM2020/2021 SVM Scientific Sessions Chair SVM President-Elect