Letter From the SVS Foundation Chair

Oct 22, 2019 Re-posted from the October 2019 issue of Vascular Specialist

Dear Friends,

The SVS Foundation is a fundamental part of our Society, entrusted with supporting programs that advance our knowledge of vascular disease and improve the care delivery process to our patients and communities.

Last year has seen a major push to raise awareness and financial support for the Foundation through the “Vascular Spectacular” gala. I thank you all for the tremendous support that you provided and encourage you to be free with any input that you think can make your Foundation better serve its mission. We are embarking this year on a process to restructure the governance and leadership structure, aiming to provide more stability and improve fund-raising efforts. Any thoughts are welcome.

The SVS Foundation has been embracing change in its focus and reach. Over the last two years, it expanded its core mission to emphasize not just research but also education, awareness, disease prevention and public health. It is a quite natural transition because behind every research award, every scholarship and every grant there is one singular aim: impacting and improving patient care.

Our surgeon-scientists are focused on results and securing additional funding, because their continued work might lead to a new treatment, intervention or understanding of vascular disease. They’re working toward the future. At the same time, our community practitioners are taking advantage of other SVS Foundation initiatives: patient education fliers in two languages plus the Community Awareness and Prevention Project grants. We just awarded the second set of these grants which are very much in line with our aims: to educate our patients, impact our communities for the better and improve vascular health.

The SVS Foundation will continue to grow and change in response to its changing environment and that of the Society. I continue to be inspired by the imagination and dedication of my valued colleagues who work every day to improve patient care, today and in the future.

Some of these colleagues are featured in our just-published SVS Foundation Annual Report, Impact. They explain the connection between their SVS Foundation awards and their patients. Please read their stories at vsweb.org/FoundationReport19.

I encourage you to be very generous in supporting your Foundation as we aim to make it a more influential force in treating vascular disease and improving vascular health.

Yours truly,

Michel S. Makaroun Chair, SVS Foundation

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