Michael S. Conte, MD

SVS Service

• 2004–2008: Member, Research and Education Committee
• 2007–2010: Lead, CLI Objective Performance Goals
• 2010–2013: Member, Research Council
• 2013–2015: Chair, Research Council
• 2011: Member, Nominating Committee
• 2012–2014: Member, Document Oversight Committee
• 2013–2015: Member, Board of Directors
• 2013–2015; 2021–2025: Member, PAD Practice Guidelines Committee
• 2015: Member, MEDCAC Panel for PAD
• 2015–2019: Member, Global Vascular Guidelines
• 2018–2023: Member, SVS/ACS Verification Program Committee
• 2021: Reviewer, SVS AUC Claudication Panel
• 2023: Member, SVS Foundation (Volunteers Improving Service to All) VISTA
• 2023–Present: SVS Liaison, PAD Collaborative
• 2024–Present: Site Reviewer, SVS/ACS Verification Program
• 2024–Present: Chair, SVS Clinical Trials Task Force
• 2025–Present: Member, SVS Strategic Board of Directors (Western Vascular Society representative)

Additional Societal Leadership Roles

• 2013–2015: Chair, American Heart Association PVD Council
• 2014–2018: NIH BTSS Study Section
• 2016–2019: Recorder, Western Vascular Society
• 2020–2021: President, Western Vascular Society

Please briefly describe your strategic vision for the future for vascular surgery and the key role SVS must play to realize that vision.

The future of vascular surgery hinges on providing accessible, high quality and high value vascular care for our nation’s aging population. The SVS, as our primary professional society, must provide cohesive leadership in an increasingly challenging healthcare landscape. This begins by staying true to our stated mission of improving vascular health for all – through our education, advocacy, research, quality improvement  and public awareness initiatives. 

The SVS must lead in defining quality and value in vascular care. To accomplish this, we should build upon existing programs such as VQI, expand the work on standards of care and workplace resources (ACS/SVS Vascular Verification Program), promote evidence-based care and incorporate metrics that are meaningful to our patients (i.e. patient-reported outcomes). Collaboration with other specialties and stakeholders in the vascular ecosystem will be critical to creating sustainable gains with healthcare systems, with governmental agencies and with payors. Vascular surgeons are trained to provide comprehensive vascular care – and this should be fundamental to defining our 'brand'. Our long-term relationship with patients is a critical asset in these efforts, and should be stewarded in an era of increasingly itinerant care.

Ensuring the future of our specialty also means promoting innovation, science and education. Through its educational platforms, particularly the VAM and the JVS portfolio, the SVS should promote high quality science and lifelong learning. The SVS Foundation must be a sustainable vehicle for investment in the research mission, including a pipeline of young investigators. Productive collaborations with industry are critical to advance novel treatments, promote leadership opportunities for vascular surgeons in clinical trials and to ensure that trial designs address important needs of our patients. Recruiting and sustaining a talented, diverse workforce will be critical to meet these challenges. Prioritizing outreach to students, trainees and young surgeons is essential to our future.

Please highlight key activities or initiatives that exemplify your commitment to the success of SVS. 

My commitment to the success of the SVS is manifested by the roles I have played in its research, education, clinical practice and quality programs. In the research domain, I served on the Research and Education Committee, the Clinical Research Committee (Chair), the Research Council (Member and Chair), Document Oversight Committee and the Clinical Trials Task Force. In these roles, I advocated for the society’s continued commitment to junior investigators (K award program), started the clinical seed grant program, promoted the successful transition of the VRIC meeting to its association with the AHA/ATVB meeting and led a working group that developed objective performance goals for critical limb ischemia trials. I have been a frequent contributor to the programming at VAM, including multiple postgraduate courses, dedicated sessions on clinical practice guidelines in PAD and as an invited speaker (e.g. Veith Distinguished Lecture, VAM 2024).

In the quality arena, I served on the SVS Vascular Standards and Certification Committee led by Dr. Sidawy that developed the standards for the joint ACS-SVS Vascular Verification Program (VVP). I also volunteered to be among the group of pilot institutions for beta-testing of the program and thus UCSF became one of the first verified, as a comprehensive inpatient vascular program. Subsequently, I have served as a site reviewer for the VVP and remain on the committee, where I am currently leading an effort to review (and simplify) the existing standards.

I have devoted a large amount of effort over the years to lead SVS clinical practice guidelines in PAD. These include chairing roles for the 2015 SVS PAD guideline, the 2019 Global Vascular Guidelines (GVG), the 2025 SVS claudication update, the appropriate use criteria for claudication (2022) and the current GVG working group. The GVG was a landmark initiative of the SVS, ESVS and WFVS to establish a new international consensus document on the management of CLTI. I have previously served on the EB (as Research Council chair) and currently on the SBOD (WVS liaison).

Please highlight key leadership positions you hold or have held, and/or significant leadership achievements you have accomplished in vascular surgery or organized medicine and summarize how these have prepared you for the position of SVS Secretary.

My preparation for this role is based on a career as an academic vascular surgeon, institutional leader, interdisciplinary collaborator and mentor. At my home institution (UCSF), I have served as division chief, program director, vascular laboratory director and co-director of the integrated cardiovascular service line for more than 15 years. During this time we have seen significant growth and expansion of services, requiring us to successfully compete for resources. I have also served in peri-operative governance, on departmental and system-wide finance committees, and on multiple search committees for critical roles. These experiences have provided a broad perspective on the competing demands of an academic healthcare enterprise and how consensus, compromise, and mission focus are required for success.

Within SVS, my leadership roles in practice guidelines (co-chair) and on the research council (chair) have allowed me to develop lifelong relationships with peers, staff and a familiarity with the administrative workings of the organization. As recorder and president of the Western Vascular Society, I promoted excellence in its annual scientific program and contributed to the mentorship and inclusiveness that characterize the WVS. My career-long involvement in the AHA, including multiple years on the Leadership Committee and then as Chair of the PVD Council, also provided critical skills and perspectives relevant to this role. Working within the complex structure of this multi-disciplinary organization, I developed an appreciation for its mission-driven focus, inclusivity and brand recognition.

My position as a board member and Chief Medical Officer of the non-profit Foundation for Vascular Cures has also provided relevant skills and perspectives. Here, I have had the privilege of working with a group of dedicated lay individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds who share a common goal of improving the current state of vascular care. Communication, education and developing clear strategic priorities are requisite in this role.

Please highlight activities or initiatives that best exemplify your commitment to clinical and academic excellence in vascular surgery.

My career as an academic vascular surgeon has included maintaining a busy clinical practice, a productive translational research program spanning bench to large clinical trials and a track record of cross-disciplinary collaboration across each of these domains.

My clinical area of greatest expertise is in PAD and limb salvage, however I have a broad referral practice including complex aortic disease. I have been recognized by Castle Connolly Top Doctors for more than a decade. I co-direct the UCSF Center for Limb Preservation and Diabetic Foot and have given numerous invited national and international lectureships on advanced PAD and limb salvage surgery.

Basic, translational, and clinical research has centered around PAD and mechanisms of vascular healing. I have been continuously funded by NIH for > 25 years with prior T, K, R and U awards. Currently, I serve as PI for the UCSF Diabetic Foot Clinical Research Unit, one of five primary sites in the Diabetic Foot Consortium funded by NIDDK. Among > 350 peer reviewed publications are in a number of high impact scientific journals, and my work has been cited approximately 30,000 times (h-index 83). I have been an invited scientific lecturer to the NY Academy of Sciences and the American Heart Association and gave the Veith Distinguished lecture at VAM in 2024. I have served as a mentor to numerous clinical and research fellows, multiple of whom have gone on to leadership positions and impactful careers across the spectrum of vascular surgery.

I have been a leader in major clinical trials in PAD, as well as in early stage studies of novel biologics. I was the lead investigator of the large multi-center PREVENT III clinical trial, testing a genetic medicine for vein graft disease in patients with CLTI. I served as co-chair of the Executive Committee (EC) of the recently completed BEST-CLI trial and currently on the EC for the IMPROVE-AD trial (both funded by NHLBI). My expertise has also been recognized at NIH by serving as a term member on the BTSS study section, on multiple ad hoc panels and on working groups.