The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Executive Director Kenneth M. Slaw, PhD, has been elected to executive council of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS).
The Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) is an organization of 53 boarded medical specialties representing over 800,000 specialty physicians in the U.S. whose mission is to “advance the expertise and collective voice of specialty societies in support of physicians and the patients they serve.” Its vision states that “working together, specialty societies advance healthcare for patients and physicians.”
CMSS is a highly effective collaborative body that brings all of the medical specialty societies together to work on common issues, challenges, and national initiatives, Slaw tells Vascular Specialist. “CMSS has established cross-society policies for ethics, relations with industry, diversity, equity and inclusion [DEI], and takes formal advocacy positions when essential to foster and protect specialty medicine,” he says.
Staff executives in specialty societies meet across numerous professional peer groups to share best practices and optimize education, marketing, communications, governance, legal, industry relations, registries and quality improvement.
Additionally, CMSS has received numerous grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and private foundations in the past several years to accelerate progress in the areas of diagnostic quality, health equity, and many other areas of interest, Slaw points out. The SVS was recently awarded a $100,000 grant from CMSS to foster diagnostic excellence in chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI).
“I am proud and honored to do all I can to accelerate the movement of specialty societies and CMSS to face a litany of future challenges” notes Slaw. “Vascular health and healthcare span the lifespan and interact with dozens of other medical specialty physicians and societies. Serving CMSS will tighten these important relationships for SVS and help improve care for patients. SVS will have a front row seat and active role in addressing the future of healthcare.”
Slaw is in his eighth year as executive director of the SVS, and has served specialty societies in a senior or executive role for more than 35 years.
