President's Message

Plans Underway for 2009 SVU Annual Conference in Denver

by Michael W. Schwebler, MBA RVT FSVU

September 21, 2008 marked the last day of Summer and the date of SVU’s Annual Conference Program Planning Subcommittee meeting held in Denver, Colorado, the site for SVU’s 2009 Annual Conference, June 11-13, 2009. SVU’s 2009 Annual Conference will again be part of the Vascular Annual Meeting “VAM,” held in conjunction with the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS). The subcommittee met at the Curtis Hotel, SVU’s AC headquarters’ hotel, located in downtown Colorado close to the Colorado Convention Center.

Denver is a fantastic AC venue, a vibrant and welcoming city located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. I urge everyone to start planning to attend the 2009 AC in a city with so many interesting things to see and do. The AC Program Planning Subcommittee has again crafted an exciting program packed with scientific, clinical and practice related sessions. The meeting will be held in virtually the same physical space in the convention center as the SVS meeting giving participants the opportunity to easily crossover between sessions. SVS/SVU again will hold a joint session designed to address issues relevant to both physicians and sonographers. The extensive exhibit hall will be located one floor above the meeting session level, affording everyone at the AC an easy and ample opportunity to visit the many vendors who support our joint meeting.

Next year’s AC in Denver will be the first of three to be held in conjunction with SVS as part of the VAM under a new agreement between SVS and SVU. In August, the leadership of both organizations met in Chicago to discuss collaboration on the VAM and a number of other issues including Government Relations and the development and marketing of products and services designed to meet the needs of physicians and sonographers providing non-invasive vascular technology. The meeting was a first and very successful, resulting in an agreement to co-locate our annual conferences through 2011. In 2010 we will be in Boston and in 2011 we will be in Chicago. In addition we will work to strengthen our collaboration on GR issues through greater participation and coordination of GR activities in both groups. I am very excited by the prospect of this new and enhanced spirit of collaboration between SVS/SVU.

October marks the beginning of Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month (MUAM). My congratulations to everyone who works in the profession of diagnostic ultrasound, especially those of you directly involved in patient care. Please visit the SVU website for products, services and ideas on how to celebrate MUAM in your vascular lab. In the spirit of MUAM it’s important to report on the health of your society and nothing is more important to the health of SVU than its membership numbers! Our retention rate has grown from 85.5% to 87% since August and we now have 588 new members for 2008. What better way to celebrate MUAM than to sign up your lab for SVU’s signature lab program for 2009 and provide all products and services SVU has to offer to your staff. To all of you remember our membership theme of “each one--reach one” and thank you for your membership and support.

Michael W. Schwebler, MBA RVT FSVU