The 2017 Vascular Annual Meeting piled on the events: six postgraduate courses, and only time to attend three. Concurrent sessions that – true to their name – were held at the same time. Ditto with breakfast sessions.

Other members of the 2017-2018 Executive Committee include:

Dr. Michel Makaroun, president-elect

Dr. R. Clement Darling III began his presidency of the Society for Vascular Surgery on Saturday, June 3, during the Vascular Annual Meeting.

1. What would you like your presidency remembered for?

Spending an entire day or so learning about the history of the Medicare and Medicaid programs? Fascinating, said Dr. Matthew Sideman, chair of the SVS Coding and Reimbursement Committee.

Does the anemic – but high cardiac risk – patient need a blood transfusion, or not?

SVS member Dr. Panos Kougias is leading a study on the best transfusion approach when treating patients at high cardiac risk who become anemic postoperatively.

The SVS Patient Safety Organization and M2S, in conjunction with the SVS, presented a webinar last month on getting started in the Medicare reimbursement program, including the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).

Before departing for the July 4 recess, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1215, “Protecting Access to Care Act,” 218-210, a bill that SVS supports.

At the 2017 Vascular Annual Meeting (May 31-June 3), the SVS Foundation awarded a number of basic and clinical research grants.

This month’s leadership spotlight is on Joseph L. Mills, MD, FACS, Professor and Chief of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Dr. Mills has been President of the Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society (now VESS), Western Vascular Society, and the Association of Program Directors in Vascular Surgery (APDVS). He has a strong interest in education and is a past-chair of the Vascular Surgery Board (VSB) of the American Board of Surgery (ABS), and a member of the Surgery Residency Review Committee (RRC) of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education. We discussed his approach to leadership from the viewpoint of the Kouzes/Posner trait of ‘Encouraging the Heart.’