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SVM Newsletter

March 2008

In this issue...

President's Message

J. Michael Bacharach, MD, MPH, FACC
President, Society for Vascular Medicine

Greetings to all of our SVM members and best wishes for 2008. I am pleased to report that our society continues to grow with membership now exceeding 600.

The executive management team at The Sherwood Group has faced many challenges during this past year, and they have done an outstanding job. I am confident that with their help we have a strong foundation for the future and look forward to 2008.

Planning for the Annual Meeting May 29-June 1, 2008, in Minneapolis is now complete, and the program looks to be outstanding. Dr. Thom Rooke, SVM president-elect, and the scientific program committee have worked to develop a program that should appeal to a broad spectrum of our membership, and I encourage all to attend.

The society is active in many areas including advocacy, education, and review and input on numerous publications. Additionally, efforts are underway to develop enduring educational materials from the Board Review Course. These materials may well become the cornerstone of future vascular medicine curriculum.

It is clearly an exciting time for SVM. We do continue to face challenges and difficulties. How do we best meet the needs of our membership, and how can we fully engage members to become actively involved in society activities?

The committee structure established by Dr. John Cooke, SVM immediate past president, has allowed for many of our members to take an active role. I would encourage all of you to use the committee structure to provide feedback and to become actively involved in society activities.

Many of you have noticed the new face of our Web site and what it offers. The journal, Vascular Medicine, continues to strive to provide relevant research and clinical articles. I strongly encourage members to submit articles for publication and support the journal and Web site.

One of the great advantages of our society is that we are influential and yet small enough to include our membership actively in programs and activities. The challenge for all of us is to get involved and help make the society better.

See you all in Minneapolis.

19th Scientific Sessions and 4th Board Review Course
May 29 - June 1
 Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minn.

 

  • Register Now
  • Keynote Speaker: John Finnegan
  • Hands-on Workshop for Nurses and Techs

Register Now for the 2008 SVM Annual Meeting and Board Review Course
Online registration is now available. Prepay by April 16 to qualify for the early registration discount.

The Annual Meeting is the premier multidisciplinary educational event in vascular medicine. The meeting exposes the vascular practitioner to the discoveries, trends and technologies shaping the field. Topics include the latest advances in pharmacotherapy for preventing adverse vascular events; trends in vascular and molecular imaging; endovascular intervention and devices; pathobiology of vascular diseases; as well as management of the associated medical disorders of metabolism and coagulation.

SVM's Board Review Course remains the primary educational resource to prepare for the vascular and endovascular board exams offered by the American Board of Vascular Medicine.

Follow the links to the program overview and schedule at a glance for more details. CME information is also available online.
 
John FinneganKeynote Speaker: John R. Finnegan Jr., PhD
Professor and Dean, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
Assistant Vice President for Public Health, University of Minnesota

John R. Finnegan is a recognized scholar and researcher in the field of public health, publishing in the scientific literature, serving often on National Institutes of Health (NIH) panels and a frequent national speaker on related topics. Finnegan recently served as principal investigator of the Rapid Early Action for Coronary Treatment (REACT) study, an NIH-funded trial to reduce patient delay time in seeking care for heart attack symptoms; and as principal investigator of the Midwest Center for Lifelong Learning in Public Health, a federally-funded public health workforce training center.

As the 2008 SVM Annual Meeting keynote speaker, Finnegan will provide a thought-provoking talk on "The Shared Responsibility: How Health Professionals and the Media Can Effect Improvements in Societal Health." The talk will focus on individual and societal responsibility to consider population-based health initiatives and how the media impacts public health issues.

In 1980 he joined the University of Minnesota School of Public Health as a research assistant. There, he led a professional media staff in developing communication strategies for the Minnesota Heart Health Program (MHHP), a major national community trial in heart disease prevention led by Drs. Henry Blackburn and Russell Luepker.

Finnegan joined the School of Public Health faculty in 1986, where he developed a research and teaching program focusing on public health and the mass media. In 1998, he was appointed associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Public Health by then-Dean Edith Leyasmeyer who retired in 1999. Mark Becker, who took over as Dean in 2001, reappointed him the same year. In August 2004 he was appointed interim dean, and in November 2005 he was appointed dean for the School of Public Health.

SVM Introduces a Hands-on Workshop for Nurses, Techs and Physician Extenders
This year's Society for Vascular Medicine Annual Meeting features a hands-on workshop for nurses, physician extenders, and radiation technologists. The hands-on session covers topics of major importance in caring for patients with vascular disease including carotid artery stenosis, peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and chronic venous insufficiency.

Attendees rotate between three stations, spending 40 minutes at each. Each station begins with a brief overview of the topic by a nationally recognized expert. Then, a live demonstration will be performed to demonstrate the latest modalities for detecting and evaluating vascular disease. For example, in the carotid station, a vascular technologist will perform a carotid duplex on a live patient.

Each station concludes with a hands-on portion. For the PAD station, participants will measure the ankle-brachial index (ABI) on a live patient; for the venous station, participants will perform a venous duplex examination on a live patient to test for venous insufficiency. Dr. David P. Slovut, chair of the special session, notes, "Care of patients with vascular disease requires the skills and expertise from the entire health care team. We hope this session offers nurses, technologists and physician extenders a chance to learn more about vascular disease."

Pay Your Dues

If you haven't already done so, it's time to renew your membership for 2008. Log on to the members' only section of the SVM Web site (www.vascularmed.org) to be sure you're up to date with your dues.
Your continued membership and participation provide a twofold return: SVM membership benefits each of us with an array of scientific, professional and career resources, and the advantages of a multidisciplinary platform for the vascular medicine field. Equally important, SVM membership benefits all of us through SVM advocacy and public education activities on issues of vascular health and practice.

Renew your membership online today.

SVM Advocacy Efforts

Advocacy is an important part of SVM's mission. The SVM Advocacy Committee, chaired by Heather L Gornik, MD, has been very active in the last year. Here are some highlights:

Peripheral Arterial Disease
Goal: Reimbursement for the ankle-brachial index and supervised exercise rehabilitation.

What we did: SVM members continue to work in collaboration with the PAD Coalition to advance these goals. Many SVM members participated in a Capitol Hill Briefing on PAD sponsored by the PAD Coalition in September 2007, including Drs. Heather Gornik, Alan Hirsch, Alain Drooz, Diane-Treat Jacobson, Emile Mohler, Peter Sheehan. SVM members also contacted their congressional representatives to help with having September designated National PAD Awareness Month.

The SVM Advocacy Committee continues to actively work toward these PAD-related goals.

Carotid Stenting
Goal: Broadening the availability of carotid stenting to high surgical risk patients.

What we did: The SVM Advocacy Committee has worked in collaboration with Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) to broaden availability of carotid stenting for patients at high risk for carotid endarterectomy. SVM signed on to a letter of request for CMS to reconsider the national coverage decision for angioplasty and stenting of the carotid artery. The reconsideration process is underway. SVM President Michael Bacharach submitted formal comment to CMS on Feb. 28 supporting expansion of carotid stenting coverage for patients at high risk for CEA with either symptomatic stenosis of > 50% or asymptomatic stenosis of >80%.

In October, Dr. Bacharach made a statement on behalf of SVM to the Food and Drug Administration's Circulatory System Devices Committee. The intent of the statement was to shape how data may be collected using alternative methods other than randomized clinical trials.

Other 
The SVM Advocacy committee continues to monitor issues of relevance to vascular medicine practitioners and collaborates with other professional societies to advance issues of mutual importance. SVM is represented on the Advocacy Committee of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Joshua Beckman is the Chairman of the Advocacy Committee of the PAD Coalition. The Advocacy Committee welcomes input and suggestions from the SVM membership.

SVM representatives joined the American Society of Echocardiography's Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Task Force to create a consensus statement regarding the use of carotid ultrasound to identify subclinical vascular disease and evaluate cardiovascular disease risk. At its January meeting, the SVM Board of Trustees agreed to endorse the statement.

SVM was also approached by the ACC to participate on the writing committee and endorse the Core Cardiology Training Symposium (COCATS), Task Force 11 Report, Vascular Medicine and Peripheral Catheter-Based Intervention. The COCATS document describes training for physicians who see patients with vascular disease. To review the document, click here.

Tell Us Where to Go: Complete the SVM Future Meetings Survey

Should the next SVM Annual Meeting be held at a resort property or in the heart of a destination city? Should it be in May, June or July?

Help SVM customize future Annual Meetings to suit your needs by completing the SVM Future Meetings Survey, recently sent to you via email, or complete it via the link below.

This year SVM will hold its first "stand-alone" Annual Meeting, May 29-June 1, in Minneapolis, MN. Previous SVM Meetings have been held in conjunction with the Society for Vascular Surgeons' Vascular Week.

A stand-alone meeting allows SVM to expand programming and exert greater control over locations, dates, venues and costs.

Please complete this important survey - it should take no more than five minutes of your time. If you haven't already completed the survey, access it here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=VXcvnke2T7BpczhNVXsu9g_3d_3

PAD Coalition: Call for Award Nominations

 To best identify and celebrate the creation of new clinical research relevant to the pathophysiology, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), the PAD Coalition has announced a call for nominations for the 2008 Best PAD Research Award. This annual award acknowledges the work of individual investigators and research teams whose scientific efforts have advanced PAD knowledge. Nominations are due April 1 and awards will be presented at the PAD Coalition's Annual Meeting, Sept. 8 in Washington, DC.
For submission instructions, click here. 

Vascular Medicine Journal News

Vascular MedicineAll Society of Vascular Medicine members, as part of their membership, have access to Vascular Medicine which publishes the latest research in vascular biology integrated with the practice of vascular medicine and vascular surgery.

Visit http://www.vascularmed.org/members/scriptcontent/journal.cfm and login with your member username and password to access all journal content online.

Invitation to Publish
Editor, Mark A. Creager, MD, welcomes papers in all subjects relating to vascular medicine, especially those concerning

  • Peripheral Arterial Disease
  • Carotid Artery Disease
  • Renal Artery Disease
  • Venous diseases
  • Endovascular Interventions
  • Vascular Ultrasonography
  • Computed Tomographic Angiography
  • Magnetic Resonance Angiography

Submit your articles to Vascular Medicine and track them online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/vascular-medicine, where you'll also find full manuscript submission guidelines.

Vascular Medicine has now launched on SAGETRACK - an online manuscript submission and tracking system that makes it easy to:

  • Submit and check articles online
  • Submit revisions and resubmissions through automatic linking
  • Track the progress of an article online
  • Enable authors and coauthors to view articles status

Register for Journal E-mail Alerts
Stay informed of the latest Vascular Medicine research by registering to receive the table of contents by e-mail for each new issue of Vascular Medicine as soon as it publishes online.

Register at http://vmj.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts.

Welcome New SVM Members

Advanced from Associate to Fellow

  • Carmel Celestin, MD, Cleveland Clinic
  • John H. Fish, III, MD, Cleveland Clinic

Advanced from Member to Fellow

  • Amr E. Abbas, MD, William Beaumont Hospital
  • Dimitri Baklanov, MD, University of Missouri Columbia
  • Duccio Baldari, MD, Staten Island University Hospital
  • Joseph Pietrolungo, DO, NEOCS
  • Manu Rajachandran, MD, Deborah Heart & Lung Center
  • Immad Sadiq, MD, Miriam Hospital
  • Robert C. Turner, MD, Reedsburg Physicians Group
  • Bret N. Wiechmann, MD, Vascular & Interventional Physicians

New Regular Members

  • Ming-Jei Chang, MD
  • Ajay Choudhri, MD, Capital Health Systems
  • David Aharon Doron, MD, Medical Associates of Monroe County
  • Dharsh Fernando, MD, Epworth Hospital, Australia
  • L. Bernardo Menajovsky, MD, Scott & White Memorial Hospital
  • Siva Mohan, MD, Sarasota Cardiovascular Group
  • Ashis Mukherjee, MD, Inland Heart and Vascular Medical Associates
  • Mrinal Sharma, MD
  • Hani Shennib, MD, Arizona Heart Institute & Hospital
  • Michael Southworth, MD, Thoracic & Vascular Associates
  • Ehab Suleiman, MBBS, IHP
  • Satish K. Surabhi, MD, Carolina Cardiology Consultants
  • James Usedom, MD, Asheville Cardiology Associates
  • Andrew Watson, MD, Sutherland Cardiology Clinic
  • Kim M. Whitten, Diffusion Pharmaceuticals LLC

New Associate Members

  • Faisal Arain, Mayo Clinic
  • Rajesh Davit, Greenville Hospital System
  • Shunli Ding, NHLBI, NIH
  • Fang Fang, NHLBI, NIH
  • Evyan Jawad, MD, Mount Sinai Hospital
  • Mark Nallaratnam, MD, Boston Medical Center
  • Roberto Pacheco, Rush University Medical Center
  • John Ryan, MD, Boston Medical Center
  • Sen Sabyasachi
  • Gary Van Guilder, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Roy Venzon, Rush University Medical Center
  • Christian Westby, University of Colorado Boulder

Copyright © 2008 The Society for Vascular Medicine. All Rights Reserved.