February 2004 Vol. 22/No. 2

Chapter News

North Carolina Vascular Technologists

Sue Hyler President Elect NCVT

The North Carolina Chapter of the SVU will hold it's 15th Annual Vascular Educational Symposium on April 3-4, 2004 at the UNC Friday Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This 1 1/2 day meeting will offer 10 CMEs. Brochures will be mailed out in February. For meeting information and information about the NCVT you may go to our new web site www.ncvt.org beginning February 15! Look forward to seeing you in Chapel Hill.

Houston Vascular Chapter

Esther Collado, RN RVT; ecollado@tmh.tmc.edu

The new officers for 2003-2004 for the Houston chapter held their first meeting at the Nassa Space Center on November 20, 2003. The sponsor for this meeting was Rick Garcia with Echo-Gen x/Sonata/Tetrad, who graciously supplied financial support for our meeting facility, hors de oeuvres, and a door prize of a DVD player.

Our other supporters who donated door prizes were Cindy Schwery with SonoSite who donated two gift baskets with gourmet coffee and mugs; Arlis Miles with Jobst who donated a lovely gift basket filled with lotions, Jobst stockings and an array of other gift items; Jody Hernandez with Rice University who donated T-shirts and a full-credit semester class at Rice University; and Rob Daigle, guest speaker who donated his published ultrasound book.

Mr. Daigle presented "Advances in Carotid Imaging: Beyond Criteria". Kathleen Garcia, BS, RVT, RDCS of the Nassa Vascular Lab, presented an interesting and stimulating presentation on the latest research dealing with the effects of space on humans, utilizing brachial artery hyperemia.

It was the first time for our chapter to utilize our local ultrasound students from Alvin Community College and it was a great success. They helped get the word out about the meeting at their clinical sites, they helped the officers man the sign-in tables at the meeting, helped recruit new members, and helped to greet and mingle with our attendees and guests. In all we had fifty attendees of whom we enrolled 9 new members and promises for more to join by mail. Thanks to all of our student volunteers!

Thanks goes out to all who worked so hard to make this first meeting of the new officers a great success, including Caroline Barker, RVT, Vice President for all her hard work in contacting sponsors for this meeting; Carl Votour, RN, RVT for his perseverance and patience in his role of Treasurer and for his help in "manning" the sign-in table; Deandra Hill, RVT, Secretary, for coordinating her student volunteers, and "manning" the sign-in table, and Cynthia Hernandez, RN, RVT, RDCS, Education Coordinator who contacted and recruited people to host a meeting and offered valuable suggestions. We are trying to hold meetings in target corners of the city so everyone gets an opportunity to attend at least one meeting in their area, and not have to commute a great distance to each meeting, at only one and the same meeting location each time.

This meeting proved that with an excellent speaker, easily accessible facilities, generous sponsors, a complete and accurate contact list, a committed audience who supports their chapter, and tireless work from officers and helpers, a great meeting is sure to happen!

We look forward to our second meeting, which will be held on February 25, 2004, at Conroe Regional Medical Center. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Brian Turley whose topic will be "Ultrasound Diagnosis of Varicose Veins and Incompetent Valves for Surgical Intervention". See you there!

Southwest Area Vascular Association (SAVA)

Gail Size, BS RVT RVS, SAVA Interim President

The first organizational meeting to form the Southwest Area Vascular Association (SAVA) was held on January 15, 2004 at the University of Arizona Medical Center, Tucson, AZ. There were 24 technologists/physicians in attendance. Dr. Mike Miller, a fellow in the Vascular Surgery Section, gave an exceptional talk on the "Ultrasound of Physics". The first organizational meeting followed Dr. Miller's lecture. Starting a new SVU chapter was well received by the attendees. Dues are set at $20.00 per year and we have 14 paid members so far. We anticipate the membership to grow to 50 by May. We have set our next meeting for May 22, 2004 and hope to have the chapter approved by SVU as an SVU Affiliated Chapter at that time so that we can adopt our Bylaws and vote on our officers. The attendees express a desire to have the meeting for a 1/2 day. Sherry Kistler volunteered to write the chapter newsletter. The interim SAVA officers are:

• Interim President - Gail Size, BS, RVT, RVS
• Interim Vice President - Troy Russo, RVS
• Interim Secretary - Sherry Kistler, RN, RVT
• Interim Treasurer - Gail Size, BS, RVT, RVS