President's Welcome

It was wonderful to see so many new and familiar faces at the ASM in Brighton last November. Our two-day program and 30^th anniversary celebrations were a roaring success; the only dampener being the wet and wild weather that drenched many on Wednesday morning!

Planning is well underway for this November when we cross the Irish sea for the Vascular Societies Annual Scientific meeting 2023 in Dublin, my hometown.  So please make sure to book your leave and start making travel plans as this is set to be a memorable ASM! I am sure I speak on behalf of all my Irish colleagues in extending a warm Irish welcome to you all in advance Céad míle fáilte!

Committee updates

There has been some change over within the Executive committee this year; Steven Rogers has moved to Chair of the research committee, Klaus Bond has taken over as Conference secretary, Janine Fletcher is now Exec committee Secretary and Robert James is our new Website secretary. This leaves two non-portfolio roles on the Executive committee and we welcome applications from the membership. As a non-portfolio member, you have no specific responsibilities, you will attend executive committee meetings to observe the committee and how the various roles work, with a view to taking on a role the following year. Please contact president@svtgbi.org.uk to express interest.

Stepping down from the executive committee are Richard Simpson, Research committee and Carlos Pinoh, website secretary. We thank you both for your huge contribution to the society over the years and wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

Social Media presence

I am sure you have noticed the increased social media presence the SVT has gained with Robert James promoting all manner of notifications, adverts and events on the SVT’s twitter, instagram, facebook and linked in pages. Please do follow, like and re-post as much as possible!

Study day program

The Executive committee met towards the end of January and set out work plans for the coming year. The membership survey carried out last year, made clear the priorites of our members for educational content, so we have developed a study day program for 2023. This February we kicked off with our on-demand Fundamentals webinar for those revising for AVS exams or indeed anyone looking to brush-up on theory and gain CPD. Registration is via the website, go to the events page and follow the link to register.

Our first face to face study day of 2023 will take place just prior to the publication of this newsletter, on the 2^nd of March at the RCPCH in London, covering upper limb duplex imaging for arterial and venous thoracic outlet syndrome and assessment of DVT.

Due to the growing appetite for virtual access to study days, we have taken the novel step of filming the days presentations and demonstrations. These will be available as an ‘on demand’ webinar approximately 2-3 weeks after the event, via registration on the website. We will alert you once registration is open. 

Towards the end of May we plan to host an EVAR study day in Manchester, the finer details are being arranged and will be shared with you via email and social media shortly.

Joint SVT/VS webinars

We are also working in collaboration with the Vascular Society on a joint webinar series. We have discussed some interesting topics and have decided on ‘Carotid’ as the first in this series. A provision date Thursday the 30^th of March at 6-7:30pm has been suggested and once this is confirmed we will post on the SVT website under the EVENTS page.  This is set to be an excellent webinar so please book it in your diary! details to follow on socials and via email.

Physiological Science transformation programme

As I write this submission, I am eagerly awaiting an update from the Vascular stocktake process. Draft guidance was circulated this February to all stakeholders for feedback on ‘Physiological Sciences Networks: A development framework’. The SVT have responded as I am sure many of our members have also.

Please ensure you keep up to date with the Physiological science transformation programme via Future NHS platform. https://future.nhs.uk/system/login?nextURL=%2Fconnect%2Eti%2FPhysiologicalMeasurements

Vascular Society

The PADQIF Commissioning for Quality and Innovation CQUIN framework has been renewed for 2023-2024 please take a look here for further information.

The SVT along with the SVN have been invited to join the Vascular Clinical Reference Group as affiliate members to support the wider multidisciplinary approach within Vascular services. This Clinical reference group is made up of Clinical members such as Vascular surgeons, a lead commissioner, a public health lead, patient and public voice representatives and affiliate members from the VS, SVT and SVN who provide expert opinion from their professions aspect.  

AHCS Equivalence

Representatives from all four SVT committees are working on an equivalence mapping document and aim to have this completed towards the end of April this year. This will be a helpful resource for our members to utilise when going through equivalence.

If anyone in the membership has been through equivalence and would like to mentor/support fellow members, please contact the newsletter editor at newsletter@svtgbi.org.uk

The AHCS once again is offering 200 funded equivalence places, news of this has been shared by our website secretary via email and social media posts and we hope some of our members have taken this opportunity.

I hope you enjoy this newsletter, and we encourage you as always to get in touch with anything you would like to share, discuss, or present. 

Best Wishes

Emma

Emma Waldegrave AVS MSc

President of the SVT GB & I