Articles & Press Releases

Attending the Vascular Annual Meeting as a scholarship recipient helped turn on a lightbulb in Katharine Wolf’s mind.

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The Society for Vascular Surgery has completed its first update in nine years to its Clinical Practice Guidelines on Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. The Journal of Vascular Surgery published the document in full in the January issue.

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Surgeons can purchase discounts on vision and dental care for their personal use and as an employee benefit for their staff. The program is through Careington EyeMed Dental and Vision.

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With her research, Omaida C. Velazquez, MD, searches for "what’s missing today that we can make available for tomorrow’s patients." She presented at the 2017 Vascular Research Initiatives Conference, discussing gene therapy and peripheral arterial disease. Abstracts are being accepted through Jan. 10, 2018, for the May 9 conference.

Off-line Access Comes to VESAP4

A mobile app, for Apple products only, is now available for the approximately 600 users of the fourth edition of the Vascular Education and Self-Assessment Program, which debuted in mid-August.

Veterans Studied for Cognitive Changes
 

After the turkey, after the frenzy of post-holiday shopping, do something for others by donating to the SVS Foundation on #Giving Tuesday.

Two big initiatives and enhancements are on tap for the Vascular Quality Initiative for 2018:

It’s nearly time for many SVS members to renew their liability insurance. This year, members have access to a top-notch plan for their practices and institutions.

ADDING LEADERSHIP TO THE LEARNING PORTFOLIO OF A VASCULAR SURGEON
BY NASIM HEDAYATI, MD ON BEHALF OF THE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSITY COMMITTEE

The SVS submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in September on two important Proposed Rules affecting vascular surgeons: the 2018 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) and Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS).

Optimizing the vascular team has been a major theme of the SVS this past year during Ron Fairman’s presidency, and SVS President Dr. R. Clement Darling III has substantially accelerated the pace of activity during his current term. In a historic decision, on Oct.

BY MALACHI G. SHEAHAN III, MD DEPUTY MEDICAL EDITOR, VASCULAR SPECIALIST

As Executive Director of SVS, one of my priorities, and great joys, is to find opportunities to meet and talk with SVS members locally in their own communities and practices. I hear a lot of ideas expressed at meetings of course, but seeing things first-hand, and talking to partners and team members about their local issues and practice environments and their needs, helps me to understand how SVS can best help. 

News From SVS | First Data Collection Year Coming to an End

SVS members have a narrow window remaining to participate in the Quality Payment Program (QPP) this year and avoid a 4 percent Medicare reimbursement penalty in 2019. The final 90-day reporting period began Oct. 2.

Don’t get too comfortable with today’s knowledge on the Quality Payment Program. Some changes are being proposed for 2018, mostly related to increased reporting requirements to avoid the 5 percent Medicare payment penalty in 2020.

BY MALACHI SHEAHAN III, MD

Vascular surgeons in a community practice think of themselves first and foremost as surgeons – not business people.

Yet they are indeed running a business, with payrolls, payment processing, background checks on potential employees, insurance issues, and many other tasks.

In a significant victory for PAD patients and their surgeons, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is offering national Medicare coverage for supervised exercise therapy (SET) beyond the hospital setting to include a physician’s office or a hospital outpatient setting.

Award winners of the 2017 Vascular Annual Meeting are listed. 

A recent study finds that women undergoing TEVAR experience worse outcomes and that gender should be considered in an analysis of risk versus benefit.