SVS Highlights for the Period of July 2007 through June 2008

The Society for Vascular Surgery has had a particularly exciting and productive year.

Membership Recruitment

• New membership doubled with 220 new members joining.

The 62nd Vascular Annual Meeting/San Diego

• Attendance was up 10 percent.
• Second Annual Meeting of the World Federal of Vascular Societies held.
• New this year: Company-sponsored Education and Device Training Pavilions.
• All plenary scientific sessions were downloadable, and flash drives were provided.

Educational Initiatives

• Educational courses presented included: CAS Training Program, Lower Extremity Intervention Training, Clinical Research, Techniques in Endovascular Management of Lower Extremity Ischemia, Research Initiatives in Vascular Disease Conference, Practice Management in Vascular Surgery, and Coding and Reimbursement.
• Vascular Education and Self-Assessment Program (VESAP) was presented at the Vascular Annual Meeting.

Branding Initiatives

• During the last two years 195,000 patient education brochures were sold.
• Fifty members taped Public Service Announcements on AAA that were released to local television outlets.

Media

• SVS media campaign has reached a potential 1 million people throughout the country with its "Spotlight on Vascular Health" news column series that instills the message: "see a vascular surgeon if you are diagnosed with vascular disease."
• Thirty-five press releases were published featuring newsworthy Journal of Vascular Surgery articles.
• More than 200 members were interviewed by their local newspapers.
• OR-Live.com interviewed select members at the 2008 Vascular Annual Meeting.
• SVS Treasurer, Julie Freischlag, MD, recorded a vascular health interview that was shown on American Airlines and Northwest Airlines in May with the potential of reaching 5 million travelers.

VascularWeb.org

• Traffic on VascularWeb.org increased to nearly 1 million and the average duration of each visit increased.
• A Members Only section has been established where members can access membership benefits.

Guidelines Published in Journal of Vascular Surgery

• "Guidelines for Hospital Privileges in Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Surgery: Recommendations of the Society for Vascular Surgery"
• "Management of Atherosclerotic Carotid Artery Disease: Clinical Practice Guidelines of the Society for Vascular Surgery"

Outcomes

• Vascular Registry patient enrollment increased: 18 new sites, 3,600 new CAS/CEA patients.
• Vascular Registry 30-day outcomes comparison between CAS and CEA was presented at the 2008 Vascular Annual Meeting.
• A FDA Master Access File for the Open Surgical Control Dataset for AAA repair for use by endovascular graft manufacturers as a comparator dataset was submitted.
• "Lifeline Registry of Endovascular Aneurysm Repair: Open repair surgical controls in clinical trials" was completed and will be published in Journal of Vascular Surgery.

Medicare Physician Payment

• SVS advocated for an increase for all Medicare physician payments. Congress passed and then overrode President Bush's veto of H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. This law provides a .5 percent increase for the rest second half of 2008, averting a 10.6 percent decrease, and a 1.1 percent increase for 2009. It was a very successful lobbying and grassroots effort, with 915 SVS members emailing letters to their members of Congress.

Imaging Cuts

• SVS supports H.R. 1293, the Access to Medicare Imaging Act which would put a two year moratorium on imaging cuts in the Deficit Reduction Act; the House version would totally exempt ultrasound. There are 183 co-sponsors.
• SVS successfully lobbied for no additional imaging cuts to use in financing increases in Medicare physician payment law.

SAAAVE Act

• SVS recruited SAAAVE Act sponsors to send CMS a letter requesting that promotional efforts be increased for the Welcome to Medicare Physical Exam and AAA (abdominal aortic anuerysm) screening to help increase utilization.
• The Welcome to Medicare Physical Exam was expanded from the first six months to one year of eligibility for Medicare beneficiaries in the Medicare physician payment law. As part of the Welcome to Medicare Physical Exam, AAA screening will be available to new beneficiaries for one year beginning January 1, 2009. Legislation to expand eligibility for AAA screening and separate it from the Welcome to Medicare Physical Exam will be introduced in 2009.

SVS PAC

• A telemarketing campaign and peer solicitation raised more than $63,000 for the PAC.
• SVS PAC was promoted at the 2008 Vascular Annual Meeting with a video featuring Rep. Boustany, MD (R-LA), Bob Zwolak, MD, and Carlo Dall'Olmo, MD, and PAC ribbons were distributed to donors.

Quality

• Congress funded the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) through 2010. By reporting three quality measures, a 1.5 percent bonus will paid on total allowed charges for Part B services for the second half of 2008 and a 2 percent bonus for 2009-2010.
• Three SVS-developed quality measures were approved by the National Quality Forum (NQF): Endarterectomy--Peri-operative Anti-platelet Therapy for Patients Undergoing Carotid Endarterectomy; Endarterectomy--Use of Patch during Conventional Carotid Endarterectomy; and Hemodialysis Vascular Access Decision-making by Surgeon to Maximize Placement of Autogenous Arterial Venous Fistula.
• SVS participates as an active member of the National Quality Forum, the Surgical Quality Alliance and the AMA Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement.

Health Policy

• SVS members participated in the first SVS Legislative Day in Washington, DC in September 2008. They met with members of Congress and had meetings with their Senators and staff on physician payment and imaging issues.

Research

• Clinical Research Committee was established to expand the role of vascular surgeons in both industry and investigator-initiated clinical trials.
• Six $15,000 Clinical Research Seed Grants were awarded in 2007-2008. These grants provide direct support for pilot clinical projects with potential to develop into larger studies fundable by industry or governmental sources. The grants are intended to encourage the interest and the development of clinical trialists among the SVS membership, particularly junior members or those who have limited prior experience as principal investigators.
• The Clinical Research Consortium was established. It is a VascularWeb searchable database of 170-plus SVS members who have an interest and experience in participating in clinical research trials. Industry and principal investigators utilize the database to connect with these vascular surgeons.

Student and Resident Recruitment

• An SVS General Surgery Resident Section has been established with over 70 members.

• A SVS Student Section has been established with over 30 members.

• Eighteen mentoring relationships with SVS members were established through the Student and Resident section of VascularWeb.org. One hundred twenty-one SVS members registered to become mentors.

• Student and resident recruitment includes 55 scholarships presented for Vascular Annual Meeting; vascular Podcasts on iTunes Science \& Medical category received more than 40,000 hits; career fair booths at ASMA, AMA, and ACS; and a quarterly e-newsletter sent to 650 registered residents and students