CHICAGO, Illinois, June 27, 2018 – The Society for Vascular Surgery has named Dr. Gregorio Sicard, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Lifetime Achievement Award Winner for 2018. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the society each year.
“With this award, Dr. Sicard joins the short list of luminaries that we call ‘the giants of vascular surgery,’” explained Dr. R. Clement Darling III, who bestowed the award as president of the SVS. “He has achieved so much it’s hard to know where to start. As president of the SVS in 2005, he was instrumental smoothing the merger of two competing vascular societies. He has mentored 50 fellows, published hundreds of articles and book chapters, and was instrumental in ensuring that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services didn’t lose sight of the important role that vascular surgeons play in endovascular procedures.”
Dr. Sicard is passionate about training the next generation of surgeons. “I always took that very seriously,” Dr. Sicard said. “If you live long enough, you have to train the next generations; it’s your duty.” Dr. Sicard was instrumental in forming the first fellowship program at Washington University in the 1980s.
He is particularly proud of his mentees. “A lot of them have become heads of their own programs, both in the United States and internationally, from countries like Spain, Chile and Colombia. One of my proudest achievements is that I had about 150 residents from Spanish-speaking countries who spent anywhere from a month to two years in our program.”
Dr. Sicard is widely known as a surgeon’s surgeon. Vascular surgeons worldwide have traveled to Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University over the decades to learn from him because of his skills in surgery and patient care. In 2011, a Distinguished Professorship was named for him at Washington University in St. Louis.
The son of a surgeon, Dr. Sicard grew up in rural Puerto Rico, and earned his medical degree at the University of Puerto Rico. Though he now is officially retired, Dr. Sicard, 73, still reports regularly to his Washington University office to check in on his fellows.