LAUSR

Friends and colleagues, it is a great honor ... but also a challenge ... to stand before you this morning to deliver the 29th Annual Presidential Address of the Society for Vascular Medicine. I’m standing at the rear of a line of vascular medicine giants that begins with Jess Young, Jay Coffman, and my long-time mentor Mark Creager (who is here in the audience today, in the front row no less) and includes the brilliant Thom Rooke in full wig and colonial regalia addressing our membership as Sir Thomas Paine in Boston in 2011. Big shoes to fill indeed! As I sat down to write this address, I realized that this meeting, like all of its predecessors, is the annual homecoming for myself and all of our SVM members. Making this year’s homecoming particularly special for me is that we are in my actual home town of Chicago ... a city that, in a series of sentimental ads in the 1980s, always ‘called you home’. I grew up on the North Side of town in Evanston and Roger’s Park. I am a lifelong Cubs fan, and I hope that an Italian beef sandwich might be my last meal. And so, feeling nostalgic here today, I thought I’d kick things off with a little context about my somewhat familial relationship with our Society ... a story that I think will resonate with many of you here today. My story began around 2001, during my cardiology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, when I met this cast of three characters – Mark Creager, Josh Beckman, and Marie Gerhard-Herman. While I had planned to become a cardiac intensivist, these three introduced me to the joys of vascular physiology and the vascular lab and the wondrous field of vascular medicine – a subspecialty in which the history and physical examination, a good differential diagnosis, and clinical acumen still had a preeminent role. I was hooked. During my vascular medicine fellowship, I was introduced to our Society through Mark (who was the Editor-inChief of our journal, Vascular Medicine) and Josh (who became a member of the Board of Trustees around that time). I became a member in 2003 or 2004, and I attended my first SVM meeting in Anaheim, California in 2004 with my then 11-month-old daughter, Maxine (and nanny, Alina) in tow. I knew no one aside from my Brigham colleagues, and I felt a little awkward at some of the social events, as I watched the camaraderie and family-like atmosphere from the periphery. Despite being a wallflower, that first meeting had a huge impact on me. The content excited me. I had never attended a meeting before where I listened to every talk in every session. I was exposed to the different academic programs in our field around the country, and I was inspired by the Society’s accomplishments and lofty goals from then President, Michael Jaff. I remember hearing Jerry Bartholomew’s update on venous thromboembolism and laughing as he started his talk with a story about previously taking a train to California from Cleveland due to a long-standing fear of flying (one which I shared and that we both have largely overcome). In that brief exposure, I was struck by Jerry’s special combination of medical knowledge, humanity, and self-deprecating humor. When the opportunity came to join his group in Cleveland a few months later, I knew he would be an inspiring boss ... and suspected he may ultimately become a dear friend. Since my first SVM meeting in Anaheim in 2004 and my second meeting in Chicago in 2005 (for the first-ever Board Review Course), I have attended every SVM meeting and have become more and more involved in our organization. I thank President John Cooke who was the first to engage me in SVM leadership when he asked me to cochair the Advocacy Committee. I was in over my head, but I was eager to do my best for SVM and get to work. In subsequent years, I’ve had many roles in the SVM, culminating in my tenure on our Board of Trustees and standing before you today as President. As you know, I have also had the honor of serving as Editor-in-Chief of Vascular Medicine since 2014. Throughout, I have made lifelong friends, developed meaningful professional collaborations with those senior and junior to me, and honed new skills (journal editing, lobbying Congressional staffers with dear departed friends Alan Hirsch and Emile Mohler, and meeting planning to name a few). I’ve learned about every sort of vascular disease – from the mundane to the spotted zebra, PAD to FMD, and everything in between. All the while, I have been grateful for a chance to contribute to our field and do my small part to try to help battle the global scourge of vascular disease. It has been a tremendous 15 years in this organization. For those of you here today at your first SVM meeting, as well as those members of our Next Generation Committee here with us today, I hope that you too may someday reflect on that fabulous Chicago SVM meeting of 2018 and how it was the beginning of your own journey in our Society. Presidential Address: Homecoming