An interview with Michel S. Makaroun

Q. You’ve been leading the way on the issue of a future workforce shortage. Will this be a major initiative of your presidency? What other issue(s) and challenges stand out for your attention?

There’s no question that medical billing coding is vitally important. Get it wrong and the bottom line suffers. It’s that simple.

Learn all about billing and coding for maximum reimbursement at the upcoming SVS Coding and Reimbursement Workshop. It, plus an optional workshop, will be held Oct. 19 and 20 at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Chicago. This is a new location for 2018.

The SVS Foundation has created a new grant designed to help sustain surgeon-scientists’ critical research amidst any funding gaps. Applications are due Oct. 1.

The SVS Foundation Bridge Grant is intended for mid-career vascular surgeon investigators. Applicants must have had a National Institutes of Health R01 grant or a K08 Mentored Clinical Research Grant or equivalents, and applied for an NIH RO1 or equivalent but were denied funding due to a priority score below the payline.

Smoking: Surgeons debate performing lower-extremity bypass in patients who are active smokers. A study published in September’s Journal of Vascular Surgery concludes that such patients have decreased longterm patency and overall survival, and that surgeons “should consider smoking an important risk factor.” See the article at vsweb.org/LEBSmoking; it is open-source through Oct. 31.

Changes Sought in 2019 Fee Schedule, Year 3 QPP Rules

The 2018 Vascular Annual Meeting featured nearly 1,800 attendees, just shy of the record; phenomenal science; a wide range of educational programming; and new session formats with overflow attendance.

Organizers consider the meeting a success and are evaluating attendee feedback to make sure next year’s meeting builds on past achievements, said Matthew Eagleton, chair of the SVS Program Committee, which oversees VAM. “We have received a lot of positive feedback,” he said.

An SVS dream of increasing awareness of and preventing vascular disease is taking root across the country.

Three projects, funded by the first SVS Foundation Community Awareness and Prevention Project Grants, will:

• Provide preventive care to those at risk for diabetic foot infections

• Educate high school students about vascular risk factors and disease so they, in turn, can educate family members

• Add vascular screening to a long-established health screening event in an area with one of the highest rates of diabetes in the country

In August, the U.S. House has taken a huge step forward in health and research funding, as Congress has not passed a Labor HHS funding bill without an omnibus since 2007.

TWENTY-FOUR MONTH RESULTS FROM A RANDOMIZED TRIAL OF CYANOACRYLATE CLOSURE VERSUS RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION FOR THE TREATMENT OF INCOMPETENT GREAT SAPHENOUS VEINS. Journal of Vascular Surgery Venous and Lymphatic Disorders. September 2018

CHICAGO, Illinois, September 2018 – New level I evidence reveals excellent mid-term results for a nonthermal, nontumescent (NTNT) technique to treat saphenous vein reflux for as long as two years after surgery.

More evidence that lower extremity bypass may be a poor choice for claudicants who smoke

ACTIVE SMOKING IN CLAUDICANTS UNDERGOING LOWER EXTREMITY BYPASS PREDICTS DECREASED GRAFT PATENCY AND WORSE OVERALL SURVIVAL. Journal of Vascular Surgery, September 2018.

CHICAGO, Illinois, September 2018 – New research in the Journal of Vascular Surgery reports that even though smokers who undergo lower extremity bypass for claudication are healthier and around eight years younger than nonsmokers, their surgical outcomes are less successful.