President's Message

Register Now to Attend 2008 SVU Annual Conference in San Diego

by Michael W. Schwebler, MBA RVT FSVU

April signals the coming of spring. The weather turns for the better and our thoughts turn toward spring and summer activities. For many of us, this means looking forward to the 2008 SVU Annual Conference, which will held in San Diego, June 5-7, at the San Diego Convention Center. This year SVU is again participating in the Vascular Annual Meeting with the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), the Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society (PVSS), and the Society for Vascular Nursing (SVN). This year’s SVU Annual Conference program offers a great variety of vascular ultrasound topics and issues to choose from with several new speakers. A highlight of the annual conference will be the first SVS/SVU joint clinical session on Monitoring Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) on Saturday afternoon, June 7. It will feature four physician speakers from SVS and George Berdejo and Bonnie Johnson from SVU.

The 2008 SVU Annual Conference will again feature a great selection of pre-conference workshops including sessions on laboratory management, testing and interpretation; abdominal imaging; and ICAVL accreditation. New this year will be a special “Educate the Educators” pre-conference session on the afternoon of June 4 designed for those involved in training, clinical instruction and educational program administration. In addition to the general sessions, each day will include a selection of early morning tutorials and lunch with the experts’ sessions on a variety of topics with an emphasis on clinical issues ranging from fundamental concepts to the most sophisticated cutting edge techniques and coverage of management, compliance and reimbursement topics. SVU always strives to provide a number of social and networking opportunities and this year’s activities will include a “Meet and Greet” reception for first time attendees/new members on Wednesday evening, June 4, and a “Taste of California Wines” event as part of the combined opening night reception in the exhibit hall on June 5 that includes virtually every product and service related to the vascular ultrasound profession.

During the general sessions there will be multiple opportunities to learn and participate in a variety of sessions, e.g., Scientific, Posters, Abstracts, Advocacy and the Annual Election. In this year’s Annual Election there are six candidates for the three open Director positions on the Board of Directors for 2009-2011. You can either vote online with an absentee ballot, or by mail, or onsite in the SVU booth #104 in the exhibit hall. With so many reimbursement, compliance and credentialing issues, anyone involved in the delivery of diagnostic vascular ultrasound can scarcely afford to miss the government relations session and advocacy update session. These sessions will update attendees on changes and activities both inside the SVU and the vascular ultrasound profession.

For more details on the Annual Conference, please go to the 2008 Annual Conference website page at svunet.org/annual_conference/ where you can view the Preliminary Program with topics and speakers listed, and where you also can register online for the Annual Conference and the various tutorials and luncheons, and make your hotel reservation online at the Omni Hotel, SVU’s headquarters hotel.

In closing, I would like to take an opportunity to thank Annual Conference Committee Chair Paula Heggerick and her Committee, and all others involved in the planning, execution and sponsoring of the 2008 Annual Conference. Without their dedicated efforts and the financial support of the vendors at the exhibition, we could not produce a conference of this scope and quality. I personally invite all the SVU membership to come join us in San Diego, a fantastic venue for this excellent educational, social and entertainment event. I hope to see you in San Diego.

Michael W. Schwebler, MBA RVT FSVU