A Brief History of the New SVS
Since the earliest years, AAVS and SVS had close ties, with both cooperating in 1984 to inaugurate the Journal of Vascular Surgery, which became the official organ of both groups and remains so for the combined SVS to this day. The founding editors were Dr. Michael DeBakey and Dr. Emerick Szilagyi.
In 1988, SVS established the Crawford Critical Issues Forum at the annual meeting, which was soon to incorporate members of the then North American Chapter of the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, the forerunner of AAVS.
In 2001, Dr. Robert Hobson served as the first president of the renamed AAVS. In his address at the 49th annual meeting of the organization, he highlighted some of its major accomplishments including their then recent efforts to launch a new website called VascularWeb and the establishment of the American Vascular Association (AVA), with the assistance of SVS. The AVA was a division devoted to public education in vascular disease, which after the merger with SVS would become one with the Lifeline Foundation.
Summarizing the unity of the two organizations, in his SVS Presidential address in 2003, Dr. Jack Cronenwett stated, "It is clear that the SVS and AAVS have functioned as a single entity representing vascular surgery for many years."
He detailed the history of the two organizations and the logic of their merger from their consistent meetings together for more than three decades, from their fundraising effort, and from their shared committees, including the Joint Council established in 1975.
So significant was the Joint Council, according to Dr. Cronenwett, that "by the year 2000, the individual society council meetings lasted only one hour, but were followed by a seven-hour Joint Council meeting involving 45 persons, where all the important business of the societies was conducted." Surprisingly, the council was never incorporated legally or had authority to take action, but made decisions only by consensus of both societies, Dr. Cronenwett said.
It was this Joint Council that charged the SVS and AAVS presidents in 2002 to "investigate the management and governance of the societies and to develop specific proposals to address these concerns." It was a charge that led to the, almost inevitable, in retrospect, merger of the two societies a year later.
Dr. K. Craig Kent credited the merger with invigorating and transforming SVS, as he said in his 2007 presidential address: "Where was SVS five years ago? There were two societies, a division of leadership and competition between SVS and AAVS. SVS had no central administrative support ... Where is SVS today? I would say strong and well. This began with the merger of SVS and AAVS in 2003 to create an all inclusive society. We now have an office in Chicago with central administrative leadership. We have a Vascular Surgery Board within the American Board of Surgery and a primary certificate."
He went on to praise the new mature infrastructure of SVS and herald its major initiatives. Since its creation, the Chicago office has been run under the support of SVS Executive Director Rebecca M. Maron and has provided support and continuity to all SVS presidents since.
Major successes have occurred under the auspices of the SVS in promoting the interests vascular surgery in the Congress, according to Dr. K. Wayne Johnston in his 2008 presidential address.
"The first realization that we could have a direct impact in Washington came in 1997. At that time SVS faced major reductions in practice expense payments from Medicare. SVS convinced a number of key Senators and Congressmen that underrepresented specialties at the American Medical Association, such as vascular surgery, should have the opportunity to submit their supplemental practice expense data for review. SVS was the first speciality society to submit supplemental data from many members across the country, and our efforts saved millions of dollars in lost income," stated Dr. Johnston.
A second major legislative victory, The Screening Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Very Efficiently (SAAAVE) Act occurred in 2005, two years after the merger, with the new SVS serving as the lead organization in the National Aneurysm Alliance, with Immediate Past-President Dr. Robert Zwolak as the key operative in the coalition.
A third, although only partial victory, according to Dr. Johnston, came when SVS, with the aid of the Society for Vascular Ultrasound, mounted a successful effort to remove specific ultrasound services from major cuts in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
SVS continues to work to promote the interests of vascular surgeons and their patients in a period of turbulent government medical reform.
