President’s Letter MyAVLS Magazine • September 2021 • By Dr. Mark Meissner
Here we are at the AVLS Annual Congress in Denver, Colorado, on October 7 – 10, 2021. I want to especially thank all of you that made it a point to attend this year’s meeting in person amidst all of the chaos that continues regarding the pandemic. This is an opportunity to renew old friendships, advance your knowledge of venous and lymphatic disease, and become involved in your society’s activities. I do not want to overlook those of you who chose to attend this year’s Congress virtually. One positive out of the pandemic has been the advancement of technology that enables the AVLS to offer access to the Congress through livestream and on-demand, meaning you never have to miss out on the Congress again! Although the ongoing pandemic has made it impossible for us to meet in person over the past 18 months, it has been a very busy year for the American Vein & Lymphatic Society, with many important achievements by our standing committees and task forces. These have included the publication on a new classification system for pelvic venous disorders, the SVP classification (https://www. myavls.org/svp-classification. html) as well as again partnering with Johns Hopkins University to produce a followup study to the Improving Wisely project. As the PRO
Venous Registry completes migration to a new platform, we anticipate the completion of several scientific projects over the next few months, and the publication of updated guidelines for the management of C2 chronic venous disease (in collaboration with the Society for Vascular Surgery and American Venous Forum) later this year. Several new task forces have also been established to codify the AVLS conflict of interest policy for board members, evaluate coding and payment models for phlebectomy, and evaluate potential pathways to establishing venous and lymphatic medicine as a recognized subspecialty. The collaborative multidisciplinary membership of the American Vein & Lymphatic Society makes it unique among medical societies. Our members, representing multiple disciplines and a variety of practice settings, learn from each other and collectively advance the field of venous 4
and lymphatic medicine. Unfortunately, these special aspects of our society have been challenged over the past year, and the AVLS has developed an active response to them. Foremost among these have been ongoing efforts to establish venous and lymphatic medicine as a recognized specialty and to stop the devastating impact that proposed changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) will have on our member’s practices and our society. Although the American Board of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine (ABVLM) was created in 2007, progress towards recognition by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has been slow. Fortunately, our efforts have been recently stimulated by an independent request for the American Board of Surgery to create a focused practice designation (FDP) for general and vascular surgeons. In response, the AVLS has created a task force under
