Our annual gathering is almost here. After months of planning, our premiere educational event in vascular surgery, the Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM), opens June 14. Every president before me has said nothing can top this year’s event—and yet, somehow, year after year, we do. This year is no exception, writes SVS President Michael C. Dalsing, MD.
VAM 2023 is finally here, months of planning and hard work are almost complete. The Program Committee, headed by Andres Schanzer, MD, and the Postgraduate Education Committee, with Will Robinson, MD, at the helm, have put in countless hours selecting top-notch abstracts and developing clinical and non-clinical educational sessions for your knowledge and inspiration. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) topics are incorporated into each session to highlight discussion within the very fabric of the meeting.
From talking with both Schanzer and Robinson, I know that each and every attendee will be able to leave VAM with information they can use immediately in their practices and/or careers. It could take the form of research results, how-tos on performing particular procedures, thoughts on the road to retirement or practice management tips and tricks. We once again have sessions for a variety of career stages and interests. Each SVS membership section and subsection—physician assistants, women, young surgeons, those in community practice and those operating in an office-based lab—is hosting sessions of particular interest to the section members. Plus:
- Special sessions aimed at international members
- Our always-interesting E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum, this year on the vascular surgery workforce pipeline
- A session on transitioning to retirement
- Maximizing various facets of vascular care in attendees’ practices
- Events for medical students and residents
- The inaugural Frank J. Veith Distinguished Lecture, named for our former president, and to focus on limb salvage
- A special session on the results of two landmark clinical trials: BEST-CLI (Best endovascular versus best surgical therapy in patients with critical limb ischemia) and BASIL-2 (Bypass versus angioplasty in severe ischemia of the leg)
- Sessions covering the full range of vascular disease
- A career fair for anyone who is contemplating a change of direction
- Collaboration with both the Society for Vascular Nursing (SVN) and the Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI), also both holding their annual meetings during VAM 2023
In addition, we’ve added a family-friendly event for Wednesday evening, SVS Connect: Building Community, for people to get together, renew old acquaintances and meet new colleagues. We have also arranged a Celebration of Diversity Reception on Thursday.
And, in a change from past years, the last presentation in every plenary session will feature a video on a particular procedure or repair.
There’s so much more on the schedule than I can mention here. For information on the full VAM 2023 lineup, visit vascular.org/OnlinePlanner23.
And I hope to see many of you in National Harbor, Maryland, next month.
Yours,
Michael C. Dalsing, MD
SVS President
