Message from the President . . .
Welcome to the Peripheral Vascular Surgical Society's 35th year. Founded as the Peripheral Vascular Surgery Club in 1976, it has evolved into the premier society for vascular surgeons in the first decade or so of their careers.
The society is purposely set up to provide vascular surgical specialists the environment
to share ideas, participate in peer review, gain administrative knowledge, and mature in
an academic environment as their careers develop. Our goal this year is to broaden the
scope of our society and increase participation. To that end, the bylaws have been
amended to allow active membership, including holding office, for a full 15 years
following completion of a vascular residency or fellowship. We've also made a much
needed improvement in the committee structure designed to make it easier to
accomplish our goals, but with the very beneficial side effect of making more room for
interested members to contribute to the working structure of our society.
The society is open to all young vascular surgeons interested in cutting edge academic surgery, truly useful clinical research outcomes, and meeting and developing friendships with your peers. Residents and fellows are encouraged to become candidate members; new this year is a very easy application process on this website. We are unique in that we have a very healthy mix of basic/translational and clinicalresearch, academic and private-practice based members, young and old at our meetings, and an emphasis on both work and fun. Meeting discussions are especially lively – this is an excellent forum to learn from as well as participate in.
The 20th annual winter meeting will be held in Vail, Colorado, on January 29-31, 2010; abstracts are due September 15. This is traditionally a family meeting, with lots to do outside the conference room. 24 papers are accepted for oral presentation, with submission to Annals of Vascular Surgery. We have also added a new session on Saturday afternoon, Complex Vascular Cases. Last year 12 case reports were presented in this session. The 35th annual spring meeting will be held during the 2010 Vascular Annual Meeting in Boston, June 11 and 12. Submission plans are being revised, but it is anticipated that beginning this year about half of the 24 papers will be accepted through a joint SVS/PVSS program committee (December deadline) while the remainder will be accepted from our traditional March deadline. This will ensure that we continue to have the highest level of scholarship while giving our members and attendees the chance to submit, present, and learn from data that become available after the new year. Manuscripts presented at the spring meeting are submitted to the Journal of Vascular Surgery, and we are proud of our high acceptance rate.
The PVSS welcomes all vascular surgical specialists, young and old, and this year there are more opportunities than ever before to participate, contribute, and learn. On behalf of the officers, committee members, and members of the society, we look forward to seeing you all in Vail and Chicago!
Sincerely,
Karl A. Illig, M.D.
President, PVSS
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