The Vascular Annual Meeting flourishes with the collaboration and participation of many other organizations.
Six societies and associations are collaborating with SVS this year, adding their members’ voices, experiences and expertise. “We collaborate to improve the care of the vascular patient,” said Vikram Kashyap, MD. He chairs the SVS Postgraduate Education Committee, which oversees VAM programming for the breakfast, concurrent and Ask the Expert sessions, as well as workshops and postgraduate courses.
For example, the SVS has long worked with the American Podiatric Medical Association in caring for vascular patients’ feet. The APMA and SVS will jointly present postgraduate session 5, “Multidisciplinary Teams and Techniques for Limb Preservation.”
“Our podiatric colleagues are indispensable partners in allowing us to save legs,” said Dr. Kashyap. “This session highlights our collaborative efforts to do all we can to prevent limb loss and procure prolonged limb salvage.”
The partnership is several years old and is a good one, said Dyane Tower, DPM, a session moderator. Both sides learn from each other, particularly about issues that affect their common patients. For example, she said, “Perhaps one of our diabetic patients gets an ulcer that doesn’t heal, and so then discovers he or she has poor blood flow.” Joint sessions help APMA members educate their patients as to what to expect when they see a vascular specialist and how that will help heal the ulcer, she said.
Postgraduate course No. 3 is a collaboration with the American Venous Forum. “Venous Disease: Ensuring the Appropriate Venous Care in 2019” will focus on ensuring appropriate venous care for patients. “There has been a lot of controversy — and it’s reaching national levels — on who should get venous interventions. The conversation has to do with both superficial and deep venous disease, and at this session, both organizations will present information on which patient should receive which operation and at what point should they, as medical professionals, perform a procedure,” said Dr. Kashyap.
Dr. Kashyap also highlighted Breakfast Session 9, presented in collaboration with the Outpatient Endovascular and Interventional Society: “Complications in Office-Based Vascular Procedures: Their Prevention and Management.” He said that, as vascular procedures become more minimally invasive, doing such procedures in an outpatient surgical suite is gaining momentum throughout the country.
In fact, the SVS has a new member section: Section on Outpatient and Office Vascular Care. “Participants will learn how to set up the office, set up the surgical suite, how to do the procedures and do them safely without complications,” said Dr. Kashyap.
Besides the AVF, APMA and OEIS, other organizations presenting sessions in collaboration with the SVS are the Society for Vascular Medicine, the Society for Vascular Ultrasound and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society also holds two abstract-based sessions at VAM.