Organizers stress that the best way to experience the 2021 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) is in-person, surrounded by friends and colleagues, participating in small-group sessions and seeing all the devices and information available in the Exhibit Hall. All the abstract-based plenary sessions will be live-streamed, as will four international events, specialty lectures and the two presidential addresses. A total of 15 Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits can be earned from among the streamed sessions.

This year, the two major meetings of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) that involve the presentation of scientific research are being housed in one tent. The Vascular Research Initiatives Conference (VRIC), typically held in May and geared to translational research, will be held over two sessions Thursday and Friday at the 2021 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM). More than 25 abstracts will be presented in four sessions covering arterial remodeling and discovery science for venous disease; vascular regeneration, stem cells and wound healing; atherosclerosis and the role of the immune system; and aortopathies and novel vascular devices.

Registration for the live, in-person 2021 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) has begun—and organizers promise you won’t want to miss the meeting. VAM will be Aug. 18 to 21 in beautiful San Diego, California. Educational programming will be presented across all four days of the conference. The Exhibit Hall will be open Aug. 19 and 20. The registration and housing kick-off is especially welcome, say Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) leaders, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation of VAM 2020 and also prompted SVS to move this year’s VAM from June to the August dates.

Kathryn Bowser, MD, a member of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, talks to Justin Michel, 29, who identifies as a non-binary trans masculine person, about the patient experience navigating medical care as an individual of minority sexual identity.

“What do you mean your partner? Does that mean a man?” These were among the questions one of my mentors asked me when we were discussing my list of pros and cons regarding the vascular surgery residency training programs to which I would apply. “Yes, my partner is a man.” The expected “oh…” was a reply I heard going to research meetings and throughout the residency interview trail. Unclear was whether this “oh” was one of disappointment, a nervous response, or concern if I would “fit” in vascular surgery. This “oh” haunts me because, in one short utterance, all of my accomplishments can be easily stripped away.

I doubt many people remember a specific time they watched C-SPAN, let alone the exact date. But on Dec. 18, 2010, there I was, in my Durham, North Carolina, apartment, watching the U.S. Senate vote on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010. Up until 1993, the military forbade openly gay people from serving, even though it was common knowledge that gay men and women have served this country in every war.

The United States has been living through some charged times recently. Our profession is not immune to these conflagrations. In recent times, minority members of the diverse specialty of vascular surgery have seen people who look like them come under attack. And there are politicians and other actors who make it their mission to try to divide us. Against this backdrop, I will relate a personal journey of confronting discrimination and, ultimately, of hope and acceptance.

Over the course of the last year, the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has been on a journey toward fostering greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). From the nadir of #Medbikini almost a year ago, the SVS Executive Board has since embraced and published a report from the SVS DEI Task Force—now a full-fledged committee—that called for action and change.

Medtronic is making updated patient management recommendations related to its voluntary recall of the Valiant Navion™ Thoracic Stent Graft on February 17th, which included the patient recommendation for physicians to follow best clinical practice and make best efforts to evaluate patients with at

Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) members can honor their mentors in a wonderful and consequential way by making a donation to the SVS Foundation in their mentors’ honor. Several members did just that for National Doctors’ Day, with $3,100 in contributions to recognize eight different SVS members. SVS members who would like to do the same may email the Foundation at SVSFoundation@vascularsociety.org for more information. When the Foundation’s new website—now in progress—is completed, honorarium gifts will be available online.