SVS President Joseph Mills, MD, is set to issue a rallying call steeped in classical history and decades of collected vascular surgery wisdom in order to bring the specialty together for a common purpose: to overcome “unrest” and to drive forward vascular care.
In a presidential address later today (Friday) at the 2024 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM; June 19–22), Mills will tackle the consolidation of medicine into ever-larger for-profit enterprises, along with the stresses inherent within a body of people such as the SVS. In that way, he will tell his audience, it is no different than wider human society.
Mills’ 2023–24 presidency saw vascular disease enter the mainstream media spotlight in the context of the appropriateness—or inappropriateness—of vascular care. His address tackles the topic as he places the SVS and vascular surgery at the heart of efforts to ensure quality in vascular care.
Mills will invoke the democratic ideals of the ancient Greeks and how these principles drive collected interests in societies.
Mills is currently professor and chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
He started his vascular surgery career further west in Texas at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center in San Antonio. Later in his career, Mills helped lead efforts to establish a respected multidisciplinary limb salvage group known as SALSA, or the Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance—a toe and flow model that paved a path for collaboration.
That same collaborative tone is at the heart of the message contained in his SVS address. “We are a small group, far too small to be splintered or fragmented,” he will say.
Mills says he is looking to drive the conversation forward. “There is currently much unrest among physicians today in medicine,” he tells Vascular Specialist ahead of the address. “What is the root cause of this unrest? How should the SVS address it? My SVS Presidential Address will draw from lessons and insights offered by previous SVS presidents, Greek and Roman philosophers, modern authors—and even rock musicians—to outline the issues and chart a path forward.”
