In this issue: 2R esident award 8 VAM schedule Targeting highly complex Get the lowdown on process of calcification opening day events
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2025 | NEW ORLEANS CONFERENCE EDITION 1
4W elcome to VAM A message from the SVS President
13 Vascular injury Imaging choice and aortic trauma
6V TE Evolving landscape of interventions for PE
15 Greenberg Lecture Moving beyond binary classification
THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE SPOT LIGHT
Day 1
HIGHLIGHTS
VAM 2025, THE NOLA edition, is here and the first day’s schedule is jam-packed with scientific and educational content. Registration is open from 6 a.m.–5 p.m. The Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) Annual Meeting (8 a.m.–5 p.m.) continues after its own opening day yesterday. The VAM Opening Ceremony— moderated by SVS President Matthew Eagleton, MD, and Program Committee Chair Jason Lee, MD—takes place at 8 a.m. followed by the William J. von Liebig Forum (8:10 a.m.), which includes the James S.T. Yao Resident Research Award paper at 9:24 a.m.. The E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum starts at 11:15 a.m., and, at 12:30 p.m., the World Federation of Vascular Societies Educational Session takes place. Touchpoint@VAM, featuring technology from a host of industry leaders, starts at 1 p.m. and runs through 5 p.m. Later in the afternoon, a series of four VESS Scientific Sessions starts at 1:30 p.m., as does the My Worst Cases session, while the Vascular Education Summit: A Referendum on the Current State of Vascular Training in the U.S., commences at 3:15 p.m. The schedule is rounded off by the latest in the SVS Keynote Speaker Series, this year delivered by legendary goaltender Jim Craig (pictured below) of “Miracle on Ice” Olympic hockey glory (5 p.m.). That will be the cue for the first VAM social gathering SVS Connect@VAM: Welcome to New Orleans (5:45 p.m.). Check out the schedule and the locations of all VAM activities on p. 8.
www.vascularspecialistonline.com
CRAWFORD FORUM
Empowering vascular surgeons This year’s E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum at VAM 2025 (11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m.) on the Morial Convention Center’s First Floor (Great Hall A) seeks to address some of the structural and economic issues facing vascular surgeons as individuals—and those that challenge the specialty as an entity. By Bryan Kay
EMPOWERING VASCULAR SURGEONS ACROSS all fronts—professional, financial and emotional— while addressing some of the over-arching issues faced by the vascular surgical specialty underpin the aim of this year’s Crawford Forum, SVS President-Elect Keith Calligaro tells VS@VAM ahead of VAM 2025. Calligaro has a assembled a panel of four leading vascular surgeons to tackle some of the hottest topics of the day that speak to how vascular surgery is structured in hospitals and medical centers, as well as how vascular surgeons are reimbursed and organized. “Fundamentally, we want to inform our SVS members what they can do to become better positioned with their hospital administrations and compared to other specialties, so that we are in a better position to take care of our patients for ourselves,” says the chief of vascular surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, who as the incoming SVS president is responsible for organizing the forum. First speaker Malachi Sheahan III, MD, chair of surgery at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, is set to address one of the thorniest topics: the issue of heart and vascular centers and vascular surgery’s position within them. “He is going to ask, ‘Are heart and vascular centers beneficial to vascular surgeons?’, explore issues around the fact that when you combine a heart and
a vascular center, most of the finances and effort go to the heart center, not really to the vascular center,” explains Calligaro. “So, his point, and what I think the audience should question is, should hospitals promote a vascular center independent of a heart center, and would that empower vascular surgeons to hopefully get more funding?” There is also a marketing dimension to the heart and vascular center question, Calligaro says: “You don’t want vascular patients going to a heart and vascular center to be seen by a heart specialist when they should be seen by a vascular specialist.” Similarly, next at the podium, Faisal Aziz, MD, the chief of vascular surgery at Penn State University in Hershey, Pennsylvania, will contemplate the position
“Vascular surgeons need to consider all reasonable strategies to empower themselves” KEITH CALLIGAR0 See page 2