In response to member requests, the Vascular Quality Initiative now includes 30-day follow-up forms in most of its 12 registries.

The addition of the form — there already is a mandatory Long-term Follow-up Form — permits VQI participants to collect 30-day re-admission data. Surgeons and hospital administrators find this information important as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has focused on readmissions as part of the reimbursement process.

Barry Posner and James M. Kouzes’ “The Truth About Leadership” describes 10 critical “truths.” In this latest column highlighting the evidence-based behaviors and attributes that define great leadership, we focus on “you either lead by example or you don’t lead at all.”

The April Journal of Vascular Surgery takes a look at the “adequate” proximal seal for complicated type B aortic dissections. Failure to achieve any intramural hematoma-free proximal seal zone during such surgeries may be associated with higher degrees of retrograde type A dissection. The article is available open source through May 31 at vsweb.org/JVS-Proximal.

2019 is in full swing, with work continuing on a wide array of SVS objectives, events and priorities.

But before shutting the door completely on 2018, SVS members will be interested to see the lengthy list of achievements for the year.

Executive Director Kenneth M. Slaw, PhD, reviewed 2018 activities and their impact for the coming year for the Strategic Board of Directors at its retreat in early January:

As of this Specialist deadline date in late February, the SVS staff was still settling in, unpacking boxes, creating new work spaces and – a very important task! – locating the coffeemaker.

The Society for Vascular Surgery is open for business in its new headquarters office at 9400 W. Higgins Road in Rosemont, Ill., just minutes from O’Hare International Airport. Its new digs are, in the words of President Dr. Michel S. Makaroun, “a home for vascular surgeons from all over the country and around the world.”

Registration and housing have opened for the 2019 Vascular Annual Meeting. This year’s premier educational event for vascular professionals will be June 12 to 15 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., outside of Washington, D.C.

Vascular calcification affects the vascular health of millions of patients. No current therapies exist to prevent or reverse it, and the problem has confounded researchers and physicians for decades.

The development of innovative treatment strategies requires both a better fundamental understanding of the problem and collaboration between vascular surgeons and vascular biologists/biomedical engineers. This year’s Vascular Research Initiatives Conference (VRIC) will bring these audiences together and provide insight from key investigators in this field. V

The early response has been “spectacular.” That’s as in “Vascular Spectacular,” the gala that will be a central festivity of the 2019 Vascular Annual Meeting.

The glitzy, fun-filled evening will include live and silent auctions, cocktails and dinner, headliner entertainment and dancing to a DJ. All proceeds benefit the work of the SVS Foundation.

With treatment, prognosis would be excellent, vascular surgeons say

The following statement has been issued by the SVS:

ROSEMONT, Ill., March 6, 2019 – The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), the premier scientific organization devoted to the treatment of vascular disease, is concerned about a recent article in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggesting higher rates of two- and five-year mortality in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) treated with paclitaxel delivering devices.