Letter from the President

MARLIN SCHUL, MD, MBA, RVT, FAVLS PRESIDENT, AMERICAN VEIN & LYMPHATIC SOCIETY

As you review the 2019 program, you will see some differences from previous years. The Chair of the congress is Dr. Steve Elias who has brought some interesting twists by getting LIVE and interactive. You will see sessions where we will come together for cutting edge content and find the scientific aspect to have reached a new level again this year. I hope you will find this format to be educational and fun. We look forward to your feedback.

As a member of the American Vein & Lymphatic Society, you should recognize the three pillars of our mission and vision; Advocacy, Research, and Education. These pillars are interrelated and touch the many stakeholders within our Society, the field and most importantly our patients. Let me bring you up to speed on what has happened over the past year and what you can look for in 2020. Let’s start with our Advocacy efforts.

The Healthcare Policy and Advocacy effort requires a village. The AVLS has a seat on the AMA House of Delegates along with seats on the AMA RUC and CPT advisory committees. Our Advocacy Standing Committee has well over 60 years of experience, and we cannot possibly have enough. Advocacy success requires experience and relationships, and we have vastly grown this outreach in 2019. There are stakeholders everywhere, and we have addressed important issues with Medicare MACs [Noridian, Novitas, Palmetto, and Wisconsin Physician Services (WPS)], Independence Blue Cross, and have met with CMS administrators and the FDA. Our advisory committee is large and well distributed as to address payor and policy issues as they evolve. Hopefully you have noticed Advocacy specific messaging and updates this year as we work to keep you updated on matters that you should be aware of and the potential impact on our practices.

Some crazy changes in coverage have been positive, as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama has transformed from one the most difficult policies to one that offers wide access to care.

The coming year will be busy. Relationships are evolving as more societies seek representation with the AMA, as we share so much common ground. We are building our bench for the CPT and RUC anticipating additional procedures that will likely fall under review. Advocacy for our society centers on 1). Assuring Access to Care; 2). Supporting reimbursement for wellestablished Saphenous Vein ablation techniques; and 3). Staying informed through AVLS newsletters and updated. If you would like to learn more about advocacy and how you can get involved, talk to any HAC member wearing the BRIGHT ORANGE ribbons to get details.

Big registry news as we have transitioned from ACP PRO VEIN 1.0 to AVLS PRO 2.0, allowing a platform better suited to address research questions being posed. Dr. Joe Jenkins and Michael Thompson, AVLS Director of Research have spearheaded the development and transition of our legacy data to the new platform with a query engine that allows immediate flexibility to address emerging threats and payor whims. CVD, CVR, and VCA are all providing data to the registry. We have exceeded 200 participating providers and many more are anticipated in 2020 as EHR barriers are overcome.

We have received commissioned research grants through the Foundation from Medtronic and Merit Medical. PICO questions have been developed for each technology to study specific features and impact on patient outcomes. PICO questions are merely structured questions involving a patient population, an intervention, a comparator intervention or placebo, and outcome. This is an opportunity for members and young investigators who want to participate on a writing group to come forward. We have dozens of projects that will advance simultaneously as critical data elements are captured and ultimately published.

Also critical to our future is the development of clinical guidelines that will further position the AVLS as the leading society dedicated to the field of venous and lymphatic disease. In 2019, we began the development of three key guidelines 1) C2 disease – Varicose Veins 2) Pelvic Disease and 3) Lymphedema with a research grant through the Foundation from Tactile Medical.

We plan to drive specific projects to support advocacy efforts and policy development with payors to support an intervention where the science takes us and to help build evidence-based standards in venous and lymphatic disorders. If you would like to get more information on how you can get involved in a writing group, please email me at mschul@acpmail.org or grab any of the research committee members wearing the RED ribbons.

What education opportunities are best for you and your staff? Attending Annual Congress? Online education on our Learning Management System? What about Virtual Reality where your new Physician Assistant could train at home with 3D goggles and content targeting small vein or large vein sclerotherapy? Everyone’s time is important, and it is imperative that a continuing education event have content of value, peer-interaction, and a basis to retain the material to enhance a given practice.

Not only is this year’s program a new format, but also we have many opportunities online, a sclerotherapy program developed by Dr. Margaret Mann using virtual reality to deliver you a near-live learning experience, and regional symposiums that support credentialing and exam prep for ABVLM and RPhS.

Although in its early phases, we will leverage our new website to offer web forums for members to ask clinical questions and build topic specific blogs to support our member needs. If you have a topic we should consider or work to emphasize to a greater degree, please let us know. Our education committee members are wearing TEAL Ribbons.

Grab one of us and let us know how you wish to get involved.

While Advocacy, Research and Education are the three pillars of the Society we must not forget the need to develop the information and tools to inform our peers, our colleagues and our patients about the advancements in venous and lymphatic care. This year we restructured our committees creating a new organization of Communication committees that will provide volunteers an opportunity to get involved in the development and implementation of our communications platform specifically targeting Professionals and Patients.

We have just launched a new approach to our web presence with three faces of our society.

www.veinandlymph.org our primary face to healthcare professionals and those wanting to learn more about the mission and vision of the AVLS.

www.myavls.org is a new face of the AVLS specific to our membership where you will find access to all the benefits and opportunities of membership in the AVLS.

www.healthyveins.org provides our patients with the pertinent information they need to understand their venous and/or lymphatic disease and to provide them with access to a qualified practitioner.

If you see one of our members wearing the PINK Communications ribbon be sure to see how you can support the efforts going forward.

Our most important opportunity to serve the Society is to be involved. We need to see our membership grow and new committees focused on the retention of membership and recruitment of new members are fundamental to achieving the goals and objectives of our great Society.

In closing, our society is nothing without our members. If you are not a member, I challenge you to become one. If you are a member, I challenge you to enrich your experience by getting involved with a volunteer committee(s). Advocacy, Research, and Education cost time and money to be effective, and I challenge you to become a donor to the Foundation for Venous & Lymphatic Disease. It takes a village to be successful, and we are making great strides. But we cannot do it without you.