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JVS
NEW JOURNAL SVS UNVEILS LATEST ADDITION TO JVS FAMILY OF PUBLICATIONS
By Beth Bales
THE YEAR 2023 PROMISES TO BE ONE OF
change for the Journal of Vascular Surgery (JVS) family of publications, including the introduction of a fifth journal.
JVS-Vascular Insights (JVS-VI) launched this month as an online-only, open-access (non-subscription) title. This model is similar to that of JVS-Cases Innovations and Techniques (JVS-CIT) and JVS-Vascular Science (JVS-VS). The second journal, JVS: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders, (JVS:VL) remains a subscription-based publication.
Launching the new publication, said Executive Editor Ronald Dalman, MD, “reflects the shared vision of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and Elsevier to further enhance the relevance of the JVS portfolio for today’s vascular specialist.”
Insights will not focus on particular topics, such as vascular disease, veins, hard sciences, or technology and innovation and cases. Instead, editors would like qualitative, hypothesis-generating, and background research (trial planning) manuscripts; review articles; single-center quality improvement projects; practice management, business and ethics topics; as well as commentaries and historical vignettes.
Manuscripts now featured in the JVS “Education Corner” will be transitioned to JVS-VI later this year, and case-by-case, targeted manuscripts are being redirected from the other journals to JVS-VI.
Dalman said a finer focus will evolve over time, but he said it is already clear that the new title’s dedicated education forum will provide for a “far more robust consideration” of the topic than was possible previously because of space limitations. “Perhaps most importantly, however, our hope is that JVS-VI will engage new constituencies within vascular surgery, including the SVS Community Practice Section, to contribute those members’ insights and best practices into the lexicon of contemporary vascular care,” said Dalman.
“As the SVS/American College of Surgeons Vascular Center Verification and Quality Improvement Program (VCVQIP) begins its rollout later this year, JVS-VI will be an ideal forum to consider the effectiveness and impact of this partnership.”
Dalman will lead JVS-VI through the initial launch period, with active support from the editorial leadership of the other four journals.
Late last year, it was announced that JVS:VL was going green. From this month, the publication is published exclusively online.
“Society for Vascular Surgery [SVS] members, and millions of people throughout the United States and the world, are concerned about the environmental impact of the choices we make,” said JVS:VL editor-in-chief Ruth L. Bush, MD, explained of the decision to cease print publications of the journal. Volume 1, 2023 JVS-VI JVS-Vascular Insights An Open Access Publication from the Society for Vascular Surgery®
www.jvsvi.org
RONALD DALMAN
Timeline of JVS publications
January 1984: Journal of Vascular Surgery (JVS) (jvscsurg.org) begins publication
2013: JVS-Venous and Lymphatic Disorders, (jvsvenous.org) dedicated to venous disease, launches
2015: JVS-Cases, Innovations and Techniques (jvscit.org) begins online publication.
2020: JVS-Vascular Science (jvsvs.org) is added to the roster
January 2023: JVS-Vascular Insights is introduced
EVOLUTION Further changes in store for 2023
THE PLANNED CHANGES FOR 2023 FOR THE JOURNAL OF Vascular Surgery publications continue the momentum that began in mid2022. As former Editor-in-Chief Peter Gloviczki, MD, and Senior Editor Peter Lawrence, MD, ended their six-year run as editors of all publications, a restructuring took place. Ronald Dalman, MD, was named executive editor to oversee all things JVS and to enhance brand identity for the publications.
Separate editors also were appointed to lead each journal: Thomas Forbes, MD, editor-in-chief of JVS; Ruth Bush, MD, and Matthew Smeds, MD, editors-in-chief of JVS: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders (JVS:VL) and JVS-Cases, Innovations and Techniques (JVS-CIT), respectively; and Alan Dardik, MD, from editor to editor-in-chief of JVS-Vascular Science (JVS-VS).
Other changes and additions planned for this year include: ◆ Focus on author experience as a priority for all JVS journals, including expectation of a less-than-30-day interval from submission to first decision ◆ Updated editorial board lineups for each JVS specialty journal ◆ Adoption of new guidelines for aspiring editorial board (EB) members, with defined and transparent metrics for EB selection and further leadership opportunities going forward ◆ A social medial editor for each journal, with assistance from SVS
JVS-assigned staff ◆ Expansion of Audible Bleeding podcasts highlighting Editors’ Choice of the month articles, featuring editorial team interviews of selected authors to get the “story behind the story.” Selected articles will rotate between portfolio journals each month ◆ The official transition in January of JVS:VL from print to digital. The switch to digital-only reduces not only costs but also its environmental footprint ◆ A virtual special issue on peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in JVS-VS guest edited by Alan Daugherty, PhD, and David Vorp, PhD ◆ JVS-CIT’s inaugural “Virtual Special Issue” on new developments in treating PAD. Frank Arko, MD, of the Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute, will guest-edit the issue, which editors hope to have online in the spring. An additional special issue is planned for later in the year. ◆ The introduction of “How I Do It” articles in JVS-CIT, highlighting the work of surgeons known to excel at particular procedures ◆ JVS-CIT articles taking a different focus, including “Cases in Leadership,” written by graduates of the SVS Leadership Development
Program
“We’re excited about what we’re introducing this year,” said Dalman. “Our editors have lots of ideas on how to increase engagement and make our journals even more relevant to our members and others in the vascular surgery specialty.”—Beth Bales
NEW ISSUE January’s free-access papers in JVS, JVS:VL
The January issues of the Journal of Vascular Surgery (JVS) and JVS: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders (JVS:VL) include nine articles.
JVS
1. “Statin therapy is associated with
improved perioperative outcomes and long-term mortality following carotid revascularization in the Vascular
Quality Initiative (VQI),” with a visual abstract. Visit vascular.org/JVS-Statin-
TherapyJan23
2. “Understanding radiation exposure
and improving safety for vascular sur-
gery trainees,” which is set to be featured on an episode of the Audible Bleeding podcast. Visit vascular.org/ JVSRadiationSafetyJan23
3. “Endovascular navigation with Fiber
Optic RealShape (FORS) technology,” with a visual abstract. Visit vascular.org/
JVS-FORStechnologyJan23.
4. Variability of antiplatelet response in patients with peripheral artery disease,”
Editor’s Choice, with a visual abstract and
CME credit possible. Visit vascular.org/
JVS-AntiplateletTherapyandPAD aortic aneurysm repair,” with visual abstract). Visit vascular.org/JVS-RacialDisparitiesAAAJan23
JVS:VL
1. “Excellent results seen in both tran-
saxillary and infraclavicular approach to first rib resection in patients with
subclavian vein thrombosis,” Editor’s
Choice. Visit vascular.org/JVSVL-VTOS-
Jan23
vein obstructions (PROMISE trial),”
CME credit available. Visit vascular.org/ JVSVL-PROMISEJan23.
3. “Identification of lymph vessels using
an indocyanine green (ICG) camera-integrated operative microscope for lymphovenous anastomosis in the treat-
ment of secondary lymphedema.” Visit vascular.org/JVSVL-MappingLVAJan23
4. “Pathologic characteristics of human
venous in-stent stenosis and stent oc-
clusion.” Visit vascular.org/JVSVL-StenosisPathologicFeatures
VQI Get FIT: Applications for Quality Fellowship in
Training program open By Beth Bales
The Fellowship in Training (FIT) from the Society for Vascular Surgery’s Vascular Quality Initiative (SVS VQI), introduces residents and fellows in vascular-focused programs to the SVS Patient Safety Organization (PSO). FIT debuted just a year ago, in January 2022, with 16 inaugural trainees and 16 VQI mentors.
The program lasts 12 to 18 months and is designed to foster an understanding of quality processes and metrics among the trainees through mentorship in the VQI. FIT is offered in collaboration with the Association of Program Directors in Vascular Surgery (APDVS), American College of Cardiology and Society for Vascular Medicine.
VQI aims to raise the bar for vascular care, quality improvement and patient outcomes. Currently, 968 centers participate in the VQI’s 14 registries, and more than 1 million procedures have been captured. Vascular surgeons, cardiologists, radiologists and other specialists who perform vascular procedures participate in registry data collection.
FIT is open to people completing medical residencies or fellowships in any vascular disease-focused specialty (vascular surgery, cardiology, radiology or vascular medicine). The trainees work closely with their mentors on participation in regional biannual meetings and review of comparative VQI data, including center-level quality improvement processes.
They are part of the quality improvement process, plus work in quality charter development and research initiatives using VQI data.
“This is an incredible opportunity for those who are invested in quality improvement and safety in vascular surgery,” said Gary Lemmon, MD. “Data—collecting it and sharing it—is at the heart of everything we do, and FIT participants learn how this all impacts patient care and outcomes.”
Participants can:
VASCULAR CASES
‘Unique’ vascular meeting set to update surgeons, prioritize audience debate
Prioritizing “entertaining and informative” sessions, the 29th Annual Pennsylvania Hospital Vascular Symposium and the 3rd Annual Pennsylvania Hospital/University of Pennsylvania Non-invasive Vascular Laboratory Symposium (April 21–22) in Philadelphia returns, providing the latest open surgical and endovascular management of vascular disease. Discussing this year’s meeting, Keith Calligaro, MD, chair and director, tells Eva Malpass the program will center around “brief” seven-minute presentations and subsequent case appraisal, aimed at sparking debate and audience discussion to aid information sharing and learning.
“It is a pretty unique conference,” Calligaro explains, “during each session we have around four or five speakers, but very brief talks and after that we present cases and say: ‘What would you do?’”
The program seeks to encompass all areas of vascular surgery, including evolving fields such as increasing endovascular management of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs). Among other aspects of the program highlighted by Calligaro is the predominant theme of emerging techniques and technologies, including the role of artificial intelligence (AI). Leveling the playing-field, the meeting gives all participants the opportunity to share their methodology. Calligaro recalled a particular case he put to Bruce Perler, MD, who was chief of vascular surgery at Johns Hopkins: “I went up to him and asked ‘What would you do? […] He kept hedging, and I said you’ve got to make up your mind and say what you’re going to do. I thought he kept dodging my questions, and he finally said in an exasperated tone of voice, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, I feel like I’m taking my vascular boards again!’”
Calligaro commented on how the structure of the meeting has “evolved,” recalling the first 10 years, when the meetings were primarily devoted to one topic, such as aortic aneurysms or carotid disease. Following a more varied format over the next 20 years, he gathered feedback revealing the value audience members gained from active dialogue on a wider breadth of case presentations. Utilizing this back-and-forth as “reinforcement” for the core presentations, Calligaro now walks among the audience spotting dozing audience members and asking about their approach—“just to keep everyone on their toes.”
“Every year we have three of the most famous vascular surgeons in the country present ‘My worst case with a bad outcome—they happen to me too’ during the second morning of the meeting,” he said. “I ask them not to present a tough case and the ending is how great you are. The ending should be that they are human and something didn’t go right, even for these experts. I think that’s the teaching point for the trainees.”
Calligaro’s approach aims to bring humor to education, providing a unique twist to keep attendees engaged. Setting sights on April, Calligaro added that by “addressing controversial topics of interest” to vascular surgeons, reinforced by “lively, educational and fun” debate, he expects the meeting to be a success. ◆ Gain knowledge/understanding of a
PSO and its strengths and limitations on data sharing ◆ Gain familiarity with mechanics of data entry into the VQI website, including abstraction requirements, variable definitions and inclusion/exclusion criteria for registry data ◆ Learn the value of data review via regional group meetings, big-data analysis of VQI@VAM and how this cannot be done locally at a center or single institution ◆ Develop enthusiasm for participation in regional and national meetings as 1)
GARY LEMMON
potential for career networking, and 2) improving process of care back to center level ◆ Learn the value and mechanics in implementing a Research Allocations Committee (RAC) proposal and use of metadata via claims linkage such as Medicare ◆ Experience career advancement—again through networking capability, volunteer participation in steering committees/research/presentations and the value of mentoring from experienced vascular surgeons
The first group of trainees will have the opportunity to present their work in June during VQI@VAM, the VQI annual meeting held in conjunction with the SVS Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM). These participants also will be competing for one of five coveted Jack L. Cronenwett Scholarships, worth up to $10,000 each, to continue their research and/or work more closely with committees and staff on VQI initiatives. The scholarship is named for Jack L. Cronenwett, MD, vascular surgeon, educator and the VQI registry’s co-founder.
More information is available at vascular. org/VQIFIT.
ACCOLADES It’s awards season at SVS as well as Hollywood
By Beth Bales
It’s not quite the Hollywood version, but January kicks off “Awards Season” at the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and the SVS Foundation, with deadlines in February and March for many honors.
In many cases, the awards represent not only a nod to the past and present, but also the future. With some deadlines having already passed early in the year, submission time is in full swing.
“In the case of our career-long awards, such as the SVS Lifetime Achievement Award and the Medal for Innovation Award, we honor those who have contributed over the course of decades—not only to our Society but also to our specialty,” said SVS President Michael Dalsing, MD. “We also have our student, resident and trainee awards, and research awards which recognize the work of those working to affect the future, to forward new treatments to impact the course of vascular disease and affect our patients lives for the better.”
Feb. 1
◆ SVS Foundation Student Research Fellowship: The award supports undergrad-
uate and medical students at universities in the United States and Canada who are conducting laboratory or clinical vascular research projects ◆ SVS Excellence in Community Practice Award, honoring members who have exhibited outstanding leadership within their communities as a practicing vascular surgeon, including those who practice in outpatient-based facilities
March 1
Applications are due March 1 for several gongs, including some of the Society’s most prestigious honors.
SVS Awards include: ◆ The Lifetime Achievement Award, one of the highest honors SVS bestows on a member. This award, presented at the
Vascular Annual Meeting, recognizes an individual’s outstanding and sustained contributions to the profession and SVS, and their exemplary professional practice and leadership. The 2022 recipient was
Jonathan B. Towne, MD ◆ Medal for Innovation in Vascular Surgery, honoring an individual whose contribution has had a transformative impact on the practice or science of vascular surgery.
The most recent recipient was venous surgery pioneer Robert Kistner, MD, in 2019
SVS Foundation Awards include clinical Research Seed Grants, providing $25,000 in direct support for pilot clinical projects that could potentially become larger studies funded by industry or government sources.
A patient-oriented topic is encouraged. Recent recipients are: ◆ James C. Iannuzzi, MD, studying “Prehabilitation using a digital app in elective inpatient vascular surgery” (2022) and, from 2021 ◆ Cassius Iyad Ochoa Chaar, MD, “Genetic variants associations with premature peripheral arterial disease,” and ◆ Katharine McGinigle, MD, “Using precision medicine to define adaptive treatment strategies for patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia”
Starting this year, SVS has added service to the Society as an important component of its SVS Distinguished Fellow process. Nominations and applications also are due March
MICHAEL DALSING
1 for this honor, which goes to Active, International or Senior vascular surgeon members who have made substantial contributions in two of the three categories of research, service and education. Visit vascular.org/DistinguishedFellows for more information.
For award information visit vascular. org/SVSAwards or vascular.org/ SVSFoundationAwards.
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FROM THE COVER:
OBITUARY: SVS MOURNS PASSING OF FORMER PRESIDENT continued from page 1
to Hong Kong, where his family had moved. He attended medical school at National Taiwan University Medical School and then decided to obtain more education in the United States. He trained at what was then Cook County Hospital in Chicago, then earned a PhD in London and then returned to America, spending nearly his entire career—from 1972 on—at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
He is considered one of the fathers of the modern vascular laboratory. He created formal protocols for noninvasive studies and helped establish the Society for Noninvasive Vascular Technology. In 1998, he received the Society for Vascular Technologies’ Pioneer Award in recognition of his contributions in this area.
His thesis in London was on his experiments using Doppler to study patients with peripheral vascular disease. “From this work came the commonly applied ankle-brachial index that is widely used,” said SVS member William H. Pearce, MD, in an article in the Annals of Vascular Surgery upon Yao’s retirement in 2005.
“He essentially, for all extents and purposes, invented the ankle-brachial index, a simple but fundamental invention for vascular surgery,” said longtime friend Walter McCarthy, MD. “There aren’t that many people who really invent something that important. That was his PhD thesis – and he did this at such a young age.”
Yao established the first blood flow laboratory in Chicago, created a vascular fellowship training program, served as president not only of SVS but also of American Venous Forum, American Venous Forum Foundation, Chicago Surgical Society, the Lifeline Foundation (now known as the SVS Foundation) and Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society.
John Bergan, MD, recruited Yao to Northwestern, said Pearce, where the two began the Annual Northwestern Vascular Symposium in 1976, still held today, and the vascular fellowship, launched in 1975. “Many of their trainees have gone on to lead divisions of vascular surgery, medical schools and even universities. The cumulative contributions of the Bergan-Yao combination and their many vascular trainees have had enormous influence in American vascular surgery,” said Pearce.
Pearce said Yao also was known for “his passion for research” and his work with what is now the SVS Foundation to help fund research projects and awards.
McCarthy called Yao “not only a brilliant person but also an extremely excellent technical surgeon. Other talents also made him stand out, including his interest in history, in teaching and mentoring, his expertise in vascular laboratories and his writing skills, said McCarthy. Yao published more than 300 articles in scholarly journals, more than 200 textbook chapters and more than 50 academic books.
Within SVS itself, Yao also will be known as the guiding light behind the SVS History Project, leading a work group to preserve the Society’s history by interviewing those notable in the vascular surgery field. Members conducted more than 90 interviews—including one with Yao himself as the subject—with past presidents, honorary members and selected leaders in the specialty.
The project had part of its roots in the Society’s 50th anniversary in 1996, when then present-day members interviewed Michael DeBakey, MD, and Harry B. Shumacker, MD, the sole surviving of the 31 founders. Though Yao did not participate in the interviews, he and Calvin B. Ernst, MD, edited a special issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery commemorating the anniversary. More than a decade later, concentrated efforts to interview leading figures began in earnest.
Yao also worked with videographer Jan Muller to compile three additional videos on “A Modern History of the Society for Vascular Surgery (1946–2017),” with the first focusing on “Era I: Antiquity and Reparative Surgery,” “Era II: Direct and Reconstructive Surgery” and Era III: Endovascular Surgery.”
The Society honored Yao for his many contributions in 2007 with one of its highest honors, the Lifetime Achievement Award.
He and wife Louise have three children, Kathy, a surgeon; John, a professional musician (whose music is heard on the history videos); and Pauline, curator of a new museum in Hong Kong, and four grandchildren (Ian, Clay, Maia and Nolan).
“Jimmy’s loyal friendship, dedication to excellence, untiring loyalty, and devotion to family will be remembered by all of those have worked and trained with him,” said Pearce.
Tributes began coming in quickly. “He was one of my vascular heroes as a trainee and early-career surgeon,” said William Shutze, MD, now SVS secretary.
“It was my extreme good fortune to have trained under Dr. James S.T. Yao (Jimmy) in the early 1980s,” said SVS President Michael Dalsing, MD. “Jimmy was an exceptionally skilled vascular surgeon who also had the ability and willingness to train others. He was not afraid to innovate on the spot if it meant that his patient would do better— his care was always patient-centered. It was truly a joy to watch him operate and to mimic his skills in some small way. Jimmy expected remarkable things from himself and from you—measure to improve, ‘do it once, do it right and you don’t have to do it again,’ improve others by adding to the literature, and no ‘tomatoes’ meaning hematomas.
“But with all his success he never forgot who he was— truthful, dedicated, humble and intellectually fearless. Dr. James S.T. Yao has been my longest and unfailing teacher, mentor and sponsor during my career, and I will greatly miss him. We have all lost a friend and colleague who is irreplaceable—one of a kind.” “Jim was a giant in our vascular surgery specialty and as one of our past presidents,” said past president Ali AbuRahma, MD. “God bless him; our hearts are with his family.” “What a great man—he will long be remembered,” said President-Elect Joseph Mills, MD, adding that on a personal level, Yao was always kind and supportive to Mills early in his career.
Quoting Maya Angelou’s poem, “When Great Trees Fall,” Mills said of Yao, “In the forest of vascular surgery, he was a great tree.”
James S.T. Yao being interviewed in a video history series
FOUNDERS PAPER PLANNED AND UNPLANNED VASCULAR ASSISTS FOUND TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES
An award-winning paper presented at the 2023 Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) annual meeting in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, established an association between vascular involvement in non-vascular-led cases where vascular expertise was required and improved patient outcomes (writes Bryan Kay).
EMMA ROONEY, MD, A VASCULAR SURGERY
fellow at Emory University in Atlanta, collected SAVS’ prestigious Founders Award for the work on the first day of the meeting (Jan. 18–21). The study showed vascular involvement improved outcomes in cases where that participation was both planned and unplanned
The retrospective analysis carried out by Rooney and colleagues looked at 245 patients treated at three non-trauma hospitals who had vascular surgery involvement in their cases led by a non-vascular surgeon.
“Our initial interpretation was that we had improved outcomes in the planned cases because they did have favorable outcomes intraoperatively and postoperatively,” Rooney told SAVS attendees. However, upon further interpretation, Rooney said the analysis uncovered equivalent mortality in cases classed as unplanned, suggesting the specialty’s “high ability” to deal with complications.
In memoriam
JULIUS H. JACOBSON II, Julius H. Jacobson II, MD, 95, Dec. 4, 2022, who practiced vascular surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City for 54 years, 35 of those years as chief of vascular surgery. He is called the “father of microsurgery” for having developed the first microscope to allow the surgeon and first assistant to view a magnified operative field simultaneously, according to his obituary. He was showcased in a Society for Vascular Surgery History Project video, a series of interviews of outstanding leaders (visit vascular.org/JacobsonVideo). He also funded an annual research conference for the SVS, now known as the SVS Vascular Research Initiatives Conference (VRIC).
