News From SVS
SVS members: have you ever dreamed about planning and running an event to help improve your community’s vascular health?
Now’s your chance. The SVS Foundation has launched the Community Awareness and Prevention Project Grants, to help members in community practice environments conduct projects that address wellness and disease prevention and emphasize patient education, public awareness or risk assessment.
The grants will provide up to $10,000 to a community-based vascular surgeon for an innovative, community-based initiative. Priority will go to projects that will benefit under-served areas or that include community partnerships.
The projects should lead to programs that can be replicated and include plans to go forward beyond the grant period.
Applications are due March 1, 2018. Applicants will be notified by May 1, 2018, and winners will be recognized at the Vascular Annual Meeting in June.
"This is a tremendous concept," said William Shutze, MD, chair of the SVS Community Practice Committee. "We can go out and do some things we weren’t able to do before – education or screenings, for example. And we can make people aware of vascular disease, prevention, vascular medicine, non-surgical treatments – the whole spectrum of vascular disease."
The grants are relevant to all parts of the country: rural, urban, coastal areas and middle America, he said, adding that the program also "immediately brings relevance to the SVS members in the community practice setting."
The new program complements the Foundation’s expanded mission, said Ronald Fairman, MD, SVS Foundation chair. "The new mission is not only about basic science research but also about improving the vascular care our patients receive. With our broader mission, we are broadening our outreach, expanding to our private-practice members to include them, as well."
He said many SVS members already host screenings or visit high schools to educate students about vascular disease. The grant program will expand this kind of outreach and community work.
"We’re not turning our backs on funding scientific research," said Dr. Fairman. "We are building on past successes and expanding our reach to every member of the SVS. This will be a new facet of what the Foundation should be getting involved with.
"I’m very excited."
The applicant must be an SVS active or candidate member practicing in a community hospital or other community setting.
Funding criteria include:
• The significance and innovative nature of the project, as determined by the potential to impact vascular health, awareness, and prevention.
• The potential for the project to develop into a larger program fundable by other foundations, industry or governmental sources.
For more information, call 800-258-7188 or email svsfoundation@vascularsociety.org. More details are available at vsweb.org/CommunityGrants.