Abstract
Good morning! I hope you have been enjoying Philadelphia and our 36th Annual Vascular Scientific Sessions. It is an incredible privilege to stand before you as the President of the Society for Vascular Medicine.
I am thrilled to see you here today. Some of you have traveled across town, while others have traveled from Argentina, Bangladesh, Colombia, Italy, and the Philippines. Whether this is your first SVM meeting or your twentieth, welcome. Your presence here is shaping the future of our beloved field.
First, I would like to congratulate President-Elect Dr. Esther Kim and the Program Committee for putting together an exceptional conference.
I would also like to thank the Veritas staff and especially SVM’s Executive Director, Sandy Addison. Sandy is our super glue. She pours her heart and soul into all things SVM. Every person in this room has received at least one email from her. Without Sandy, SVM would not function, and I want to thank her for keeping us going. I would also like to thank our SVM Board of Trustees and its Executive Committee, Drs. Esther Kim, Aditya Sharma, Daniella Kadian-Dodov, and Herb Aronow. I could not have asked for a better team.
When Dr. Herb Aronow emailed Dr. Brian Annex about his MSVM award, Brian replied within minutes to say, “My association with SVM has been among the most rewarding and enjoyable of my career.” I feel the exact same way because of these people you see before you on the stage. I will cherish my SVM friendships for life.
In preparing for today, I looked back at the words of our Past Presidents. As I looked over this list and read their published addresses, my first thought was “How did I end up here?” And I realized that I ended up here because of these people who helped me along the way. Many of them are here with us in Philadelphia, including Drs. Ido Weinberg, Herb Aronow, Raghu Kolluri, Heather Gornik, Jim Froehlich, Josh Beckman, Thom Rooke, and Michael Bacharach, as well as founding member Dr. Mark Creager who served as Editor-in-Chief of our journal Vascular Medicine for nearly 2 decades. Their presence here speaks volumes about the depth and dedication of our SVM leadership. They have all given tirelessly to our Society and the field.
Now you too may wonder how I ended up here, so I will share a bit of my story.
I was born in Athens, Georgia, and at birth, as Herb knows, I became a Georgia Bulldogs football fan. I grew up in Atlanta, the only child of an elementary school teacher and an international lawyer. My dad grew up on a chicken farm and wanted to get far away from chickens, so he went to law school; he remains the person I admire most in this world. In 1989 in 9th grade, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. At the same time, SVM was born when 13 men got together at a Marriott in Anaheim, and Dr. Jess Young became the first SVM President. I went to college at Dartmouth where I lost my southern accent, and I have gradually moved south ever since, with med school at Yale, residency at Columbia, and then to Johns Hopkins. When I was a resident, I thought I wanted to specialize in oncology; I was fascinated by the hypercoagulable state. But in my Washington Heights clinic, I also loved risk factor modification. One day near the end of my residency, I heard they were starting a vascular medicine program at Columbia. I interviewed, and they hired me (probably because it was less expensive to train me than to hire an experienced vascular medicine specialist). Columbia sent me to the 2003 SVM meeting just before I finished residency. It was known then as the Society for Vascular Medicine & Biology (SVMB), and the meeting had moved from Toronto to Chicago due to SARS. I was riveted by every lecture. I shook hands with SVM president Dr. Jonathan Halperin and met past and future leaders, all of whom were incredibly warm and welcoming. I loved it. And in the 22 years since, I have only missed one SVM meeting - and only because I was too pregnant to travel.
At that point, I joined SVM and learned vascular ultrasound interpretation and noninvasive vascular medicine, with observerships and ultrasound courses around the country, one of which was here in Philadelphia at Jefferson. I had the privilege of working with Dr. Jeff Olin at Mount Sinai in New York City. I remember seeing a patient with thromboangiitis obliterans with him, whose fingers were auto-amputating. I read ultrasounds with him and learned so much; he told me to say contrast, not dye. My time there is what I know now to be called a “flashbulb” memory - a vivid recollection of a consequential event. I have several of those: I remember Dr. Alan Hirsch referring to PAD as “metastatic atherosclerosis” and Dr. Thom Rooke in a wig and colonial costume. Looking back though, it was Dr. Josh Beckman who put me on the SVM leadership path. Josh had been a resident and chief resident at Columbia, which bonded us. He encouraged me to get involved with SVM, which led me to committees and eventually to the Board of Trustees.
In 2013, Dr. Heather Gornik asked me to start and co-edit the Patient Information Page section of VMJ when she was taking over from Dr. Mark Creager as Editor-in-Chief. The Patient Page experience with her has been one of the most meaningful of my career. I joined the SVM Board in 2015, and in 2019, Dr. Raghu Kolluri asked me to be SVM Secretary. I loved the Secretary position, which I held for 4 years. If I could, I’d be SVM Secretary forever, but the Bylaws will not allow it – I checked. So, that path brings me here today as SVM President.
In this moment, I could share with you my thoughts on the future of vascular medicine as a specialty, which is quite secure thanks to those who came before me. I could talk about our mission; or our intersocietal coalitions and collaborations; or the position statements, decision memos, and guidelines we have endorsed; or specialty recognition; or the grants we funded on Building the Evidence Base for Vascular Medicine; or the importance of training the next generation; or the role of AI; or how I believe we need to start teaching college and medical students about vascular medicine, before they are residents or fellows. Fear not. I have invited guest speakers to the Business Meeting to brief you on a few of these key issues.
What I really want to share with you is what is most important to me, which is what our SVM committee members have achieved this year. If you are not yet on a committee, please join us. Bring your talent and ideas and join in on the fun. I want to welcome you as others welcomed me. I promise you’ll love it. As Dr. Brian Annex said, it will be one of the most rewarding aspects of your career.
I have had the pleasure of working with extraordinary people across 17 committees and task forces. I will highlight just a few.
First, led by Ali Moran Baird and Danielle Vlazny, the Advanced Practice Provider (APP) committee has developed a Speakers Bureau for APPs and is working on growing APP membership, mentorship, and research. They will also co-chair the wildly popular Fellows/APP Course (with Drs. Kamal Gupta and Stan Henkin), which will be held in Chicago in 2026.
Led by Drs. Andrew Dicks and Randy Ramcharitar, the Education Committee recently launched the American Board of Vascular Medicine (ABVM) practice question bank. They have revived the SVM/American College of Cardiology webinars and are working on the International Atlas. And Andrew expertly runs our SVM Journal Club.
Led by Drs. Kevin Cohoon and Sneha Thomas, Marketing and Communications handles the Society Communication Pages (also known as the “Blue Pages”), social media, and other outreach efforts.
Led by Dr. Alex Solomon (who co-edits the Patient Information Page with me) and Dr. Yulanka Castro Dominguez, the NextGen Committee has hosted social events, served as panelists for webinars, and played a critical role with the Jaff Fellows Leadership Institute. I have asked Dr. Solomon to speak in more detail on the Jaff Fellows today because in my view, it is one of SVM’s greatest treasures (see Box 1).
Jaff Fellows Leadership Institute: The Future of SVM Shines.
The Research, Quality, and Publications Committee was led by Drs. Jenn Rymer and Damon Houghton this year. Jenn will be joined next year by Dr. Sanjum Sethi. This committee reviews all document endorsement requests from other professional societies. They also develop internal SVM position statements and practice guidelines. They published a statement on “Research Priorities for Peripheral Artery Disease,” 1 and now they are working on Research Priorities in Post-Pulmonary Embolism Care. Their upcoming End-of-Limb document will focus on advanced chronic limb-threatening ischemia.
I would like to thank Dr. Rob Eberhardt for his work as Chair of the Fellowship Training Committee. They have held in-person and virtual meetings for all the program directors. They published a Blue Page on fellowship funding and are putting together a repository of extramural rotations. 2 They also maintain the online Fellowship Training Program Toolkit. Drs. Bryan Wells and Kevin Rogers will continue this important work next year.
The Vascular Medicine Practice Task Force is led by Drs. JL Lou and Jay Bishop. They put on a great billing webinar in March and contributed a Blue Page on how to start a vascular lab. 3 I have asked Jay to speak on the Task Force’s greatest accomplishment: the recently launched 2025 SVM Practice and Compensation Survey.
Led by Dr. Syed Ahsan and Carlos Echevarria, the Venous Task force keeps the Venous Meetings Calendar up to date. This year they launched the Venous Disease Assessment Toolkit. Now they are working on patient education for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in pregnancy, and you will soon see their fantastic videos on VTE prevention in air travel. In late-breaking news: in my last 5 minutes as President (by executive order and in conjunction with the group), I am renaming it the Venous and Lymphatic Task Force!
Believe it or not, these highlights are from only 8 of our 17 committees. There are many others I have not named who have given so much to SVM, and I thank you all.
Now, how can we keep this positive momentum going and move the Society and our field towards an even brighter future? You are a room full of energy. A room full of like-minded, brilliant, and dedicated people - all united in a love for blood vessels. SVM will thrive if we can follow Drs. Bob Schainfeld and Ido Weinberg’s approach from yesterday’s award ceremony: Work hard, be there for your friends, and go home knowing you did the right thing every time.
It has been such an honor to serve the Society since I joined 22 years ago. This has truly been the opportunity of a lifetime. Thank you.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
