2024 Spring Newsletter
President’s Message
2023 – 2024 FVS President
Dear Members of the Florida Vascular Society,
I trust this letter finds you well. I am eagerly anticipating our upcoming Annual Meeting, April 11-14 at the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando, Florida. I am delighted to announce that this year, we have received an impressive 119 abstracts for the Annual Meeting, reflecting the commitment and enthusiasm of our community in advancing the field of Vascular Surgery.
A sincere thank you goes to Dr. Libby Watch and the program committee for their dedication in selecting outstanding clinical research and case reports, ensuring a rich and diverse program for our meeting. The highlight of this year’s Seeger Symposium, organized by Dr. Sal Scali, will be the exploration of “Vascular Oddities” and other infrequently seen diagnoses. Our Visiting Professors, Dr. Anihita Dua from MGH, Dr. Jason Lee from Stanford, and Dr. David Rigberg from UCLA, will contribute to the academic excellence of our meeting. I encourage you all to stay until Sunday morning’s “best and worst” cases session, which gained tremendous success last year, and will continue to provide valuable insights into the challenges and triumphs of our field. Please make every effort to participate in our Welcome Reception on Thursday afternoon, and our Lunch and Learn sessions on Friday and Saturday. Our industry support is crucial to the meeting’s success, and I encourage you all to explore the booths, meet the vendors, and learn about the latest technology.
In addition to the academic offerings, I am thrilled to inform you that our social events will include a golf tournament on Friday and a family-friendly Pool Party on Saturday. We invite you and your families to join us for an afternoon of relaxation and camaraderie by the pool. Moreover, in the spirit of making the most of your time in Orlando, you and your families can also take advantage of the nearby Disney Parks and other Orlando attractions, restaurants, and shopping.
To ensure your participation, kindly register for the Annual Meeting and confirm your hotel reservations at your earliest convenience. Your involvement is crucial to the success of this gathering and adds to the vibrant and collaborative spirit of the Florida Vascular Society. You can register for the meeting by visiting the following link: FVS Annual Meeting : Florida Vascular Society.
As we look towards the future of the Florida Vascular Society, I encourage you to submit nominations for the open officer positions. Your active involvement in shaping the leadership of our society is invaluable.
Thank you for your continued dedication to advancing vascular medicine, and I look forward to welcoming you and your families to the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando, Florida.
2024 Scientific Sessions Program Report
The Florida Vascular Society’s 37th Annual Scientific Sessions is being held on April 11 – 14, 2024 at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in-person in Orlando in 2024 and hope you will make plans to join us.
This meeting will be jam-packed with cutting edge science, brilliant speakers, and fun-filled down time. Expect our famous golf tournament benefitting the Florida Vascular Foundation, and Splash Bash that the whole family can enjoy. The agenda for the meeting can be found here: 2024 FVS Annual Meeting Agenda : Florida Vascular Society.
We are excited to welcome our 3 visiting professors for the 2024 Annual Meeting:
Anahita Dua, MD
Dr. Dua is a vascular surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. At Mass General, she is the director of the Vascular Lab, co-director of the Peripheral Artery Disease Center and Limb Evaluation and Amputation Program (LEAPP), associate director of the Wound Care Center, associate director of the Vascular Surgery Clerkship and director of clinical research for the division of vascular surgery. She specializes in advanced endovascular (minimally invasive) and traditional (open) limb salvage techniques for treating peripheral arterial disease and critical limb ischemia, diabetic limb disease, aortic disease, carotid disease, thoracic outlet syndrome and venous disease.
Jason T. Lee, MD
Dr. Lee is the chief of vascular surgery for Stanford Medicine. He is a fellowship-trained, board-certified vascular surgeon and a world-renowned leader in the field. He has a strong “patient first” philosophy of care. For every case, he emphasizes the most advanced, minimally invasive diagnostic and treatment approaches. He works closely with a multidisciplinary team of specialists to ensure that each care plan is personalized, precise, compassionate, and comprehensive. Dr. Lee also is passionate about educating and mentoring tomorrow’s vascular surgeons. He is a professor of surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. He serves as past president of the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society and is current president of the Association of Program Directors in Vascular Surgery.
David A. Rigberg, MD
Dr. Rigberg is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He completed his internship and residency in general surgery at UCLA, and then was the vascular fellow at UCLA as well. This training included open vascular surgery as well as catheter-based endovascular interventions. Dr. Rigberg has published extensively in the basic and clinical sciences, including work in the field of outcomes from aortic operations.
Foundation Report
President, Florida Vascular Foundation
Dear Colleagues,
Spring has arrived in Florida and with the warmer weather I always look forward to our meeting of the Florida Vascular Society. This year, we return to Orlando to share our love of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Shames and the executive council have put together a fantastic program ranging from interesting and esoteric topics to deeper dives into the everyday questions and problems that face each of us. The opening plenary sessions and visiting professor topics on Thursday provide a broad spectrum of topics that examine the complexities of vascular disease and the social and demographic issues that are affecting our patients. I am particularly excited about the James M. Seeger, MD sessions on Friday titled, “Vascular Oddities”. The uncommon topics on the list include many of the unusual diseases that may have us consulting Dr. Google on our phones before we see these patients. On Saturday, there are a wide range of topics with some very interesting twists on some common and uncommon problems we see in our daily practices. We finish the sessions on Sunday with a variety of interesting cases where I’m sure we all will have differing opinions on how best to approach these problems and see how our colleagues have successfully or unsuccessfully treated them.
As usual, we will have multiple opportunities to socialize in the beautiful setting of the Waldorf Astoria, rekindling old friendships and creating new ones with our welcome reception Thursday evening, Golf tournament Friday afternoon and Splash Bash Saturday afternoon.
I want to thank all of our industry sponsors; without their generous support we would not be able to enjoy such a fantastic event. I would encourage everyone to take time during the meeting to visit with them to express our thanks for the efforts they spend supporting us.
Finally, I want to thank the generous donors to The Florida Vascular Foundation listed below. Without their support, we would not be able to offer the scholarships that help our students and residents attend our meeting, nor would we be able to honor our outstanding students and residents. We look forward to this year’s abstract competition, where awardees will be presented with FVF-sponsored prizes.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation so that we can continue to support the growth of Vascular surgery in Florida. Donations can be made by visiting, Donate : Florida Vascular Society.
Thank you to those who have donated to FVF since the January 1, 2024:
- James Dennis, MD, FACS
- Paul Citrin, MD, FACS
- Chun Kevin Yang, MD
- Shonak Patel, MD
Membership Report
Chair, Membership Committee
The membership committee has met to discuss initiatives to increase membership and expand upon member categories.
We are looking forward to our Annual meeting, April 11-14, 2024, at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando. We want to congratulate and introduce our newest members from 2023, listed below. The 2024 FVS applicants will be voted in at the Business Meeting.
New to our meeting this year will include a Trainee Social, specific for medical students, residents, and fellows to allow an informal networking experience. This will be scheduled for Saturday before the “Splash Bash.” We will continue our traditional Golf Tournament as well.
Our sessions and presentations will include exciting topics such as, “Vascular Oddities”, “The Best/Worst Cases”, and the integration of AI in Vascular Education, which I certainly look forward to.
In effort to drive membership goals we have been pushing the FVS Membership Challenge. The member who recruits the most new applicants/members will have a waived registration fee for this year’s annual meeting.
We currently have 150 members within FVS. We have members with unpaid dues for which we will continue outreach. Membership can now pay dues through the website. Non-members can now join through the website directly, at fvs.org/apply/. In addition, we recently added autopay as an option for dues payments to simplify it for our members.
Fellows, residents, and medical students have no membership/application fees.
As a goal for continued growth in FVS we have developed a spreadsheet to use as a tool for outreach and tracking. We have assigned regions to each committee member based on their current practice location. Through this, we are asking our local industry partners to help provide a list of regional Vascular Surgeons. This list will be used to track current members as well as to help recruit new members. Further outreach will be provided by compiling SVS, FMA, ACS and other lists of Vascular Surgeons. This will be an ongoing initiative.
Please welcome new FVS members:
- Mark Bonta, MD, FRCPC
- Akshara Challa, MS3
- Gustavo De Jesus, MD
- James Graves, APRN
- Suy Sen Hong Fong, MD
- Aqiyl Mills, MS
- Alec Schubert, MS
- Roberto Torres-Aguiar, PG3
- Miguel Villalobos, Jr., MD, FACS, RPVI
- Rachel Wilson, MD