Alton Ochsner, MD, was the first president of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), which was formed in 1946. The first annual meeting—a half-day affair—was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 8, 1947. Julie Ann Freischlag, MD, was the first woman president (and to date the only one). And the first 10 people to serve as SVS president were all among the 31 charter/founding members.
During the 2022 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) in June, the SVS will officially end a year-long celebration of its 75th anniversary. To help mark the occasion, the SVS is publishing 75 Facts in 75 Days.
The short facts have been running daily since April 5, 75 days out from VAM’s close on June 18 (weekend posts appear the following Monday).
“This is the brainchild of the Communication Committee’s Social Media Chair Dr. Meryl Logan,” said Communications Committee chair Amy Reed, MD. “As chair, I encouraged the rest of the committee to brainstorm thoughts and ideas. It was fun to hear all the interesting tidbits the committee members gave!”
That’s when Logan developed the idea for 75 facts.
“We were all thinking about creative ways to celebrate the upcoming 75th VAM, and the idea of a ‘75-day countdown’ came to me as a fun way to not only celebrate this anniversary, but also promote the meeting,” said Logan. “We’ve been posting these little tidbits to social media and they include not only VAM history, but also SVS and vascular surgery historical facts and firsts. I think it’s been an engaging and entertaining social media endeavor.”
