The SVS includes five special sections for different member groups, including physician assistants, women, young surgeons, surgeons in community practice and the Subsection on Outpatient and Office Vascular Care (SOOVC).
With each section session quite popular during the 2022 VAM, all sections will hold dedicated educational sessions during this year as well. SOOVC and the Women and PA sections take place from 1:30–3 p.m. Thursday. PAs continue from 3:30–5 p.m.
SOOVC
SOOVC will concentrate on the “Business of Running an OBL (office-based lab),” as well as comparing costs of OBLs vs. ambulatory surgery centers (ACSs), financial viability, daily management, and maintaining an OBL with decreased payments.
Section leaders also will present the recipients of the section’s first-ever awards. The SOOVC Presentation Award recipients are:
- Michael A. Curi, MD; “Arteriovenous fistula creation and care in a dedicated office-based practice is superior to hospital-based care”
- Keerthi Harish, MD; “Prior authorization processes in the office-based laboratory setting are administratively inefficient and threaten timeliness of care”
- Pavel Kibrik, MD; “Success rate and factors predictive of redo endothermal ablation of small saphenous veins”
The SOOVC Research Seed Grant recipients are:
- Michael Curi, for the award above
- Robert Molnar, MD; “Assessing the currently accepted indications for outpatient fistulogram performance and developing a quality improvement plan to establish a treatment algorithm for patients with hemodialysis (HD) dysfunction”
- Heather Waldrop, MD, and Christina Cui, MD; “Potential cost savings by moving appropriate cases to an office-based angiography suite”
Women’s Section
The Women’s Section will concentrate on “Financial Literacy for the Vascular Surgeon.” Talks include “It’s never too soon: Early planning for your financial future”; “Navigating business plans for vascular surgery practice”; “Understanding your contract”; “Financial planning for mid- and late-career surgeons: An advisor perspective”; “Consulting with industry: Collaboration or conflict?”; and “Negotiating salary: Tips to minimize the pay gap.”
Physician Assistants Section
Following a rousing session of “Jeopardy Cases over Cocktails” on Wednesday, the PAs continue their collaboration with the Society for Vascular Nursing today. From 12–1 p.m., the two groups will hold a lunchtime panel discussion with PAs Ricardo Morales, Erin Hanlon and Abby Keen, and nurses Katherine Hays, Gabriell Grayson and Stacy Hosenfeld. Audience members should bring their questions.
“This will focus on discussing our different roles and responsibilities,” said Holly Grunebach, PA-C, section chair. “We function very similarly within the vascular team. Our training is different but our interactions with the patient are the same. There is a lot of collaboration.”
PAs then have an afternoon of education, with sessions from 1:30–3 and 3:30–5 p.m. in Maryland A. The line-up includes a review and discussion of vascular oddities and vascular imaging. Participants will view comparisons of ultrasound images highlighting the area of disease both before and after repair with such tools as a patch, stent, bypass and more.
SVS members will lead three hands-on simulations, highlighting the use of two closure devices to close arteriotomy sites after angiograms. The third will offer hands-on learning of performing an ultrasound of the carotid artery, plus discussion of the results.
“We think we’ve planned a fantastic afternoon of learning for our members,” said Grunebach. “We started out our planning with thinking about what we really found useful from last year and went from there.”
This is the only PA group that is for PAs in vascular surgery, Grunebach pointed out. “It’s hard to find something this specialized and it’s what I really like about it. We’re of like minds and function in similar practices. The section is very valuable.”
