President's Message

Dear Colleagues,

I am humbled and honored in the trust and confidence that the CSVS membership and Executive have placed in me to sit as your CSVS President. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the contributions of our Past President Dr. Baxter who guided the Society through these COVID times and oversaw our first and very successful Virtual Conference. His vision has proven that our Society can easily adapt and that future conferences can be accessible to all.

Dr. Rapanos and Dr. Elias put on an excellent academic program which was well attended from coast to coast. I want to thank everyone who attended as well as those who presented their research which clearly showed that the future of vascular surgery in Canada is indeed very bright. Congratulations to all of this year’s award winners listed in the newsletter. I strongly encourage members to submit applications for these awards and thank the sponsors who support these awards. I would also like to thank Dr. Oreopoulos for all the time and effort he put into creating what would have been our first half day preconference clinical academic session that was cancelled due to COVID-19. Hopefully we can have this session next year.

This year, the Executive committee will continue to advance topics of importance to the membership including ongoing recruitment for the Juxtarenal Aneurysm study (Dr. Gill), Quality and Outcomes as well as insights (Dr. Abdulrehman) and advise the membership of the VQI Subsidy arranged for new Canadian sites by Dr. Roche-Nagle.  Dr. Kapila and his group are busy working on guidelines on behalf of the Society and have just received word that their recent updated guidelines on AAA Screening have just been accepted for publication. Congratulations! Any CSVS members who are interested in getting involved in the Society through any of these committees are encouraged to contact Alexi Campbell at csvs@vascular.ca, or reach out to the respective chairs.

Next year’s meeting is in Hamilton, ON and even though we all hope for an in-person meeting the Executive is planning for an enhanced virtual conference as discussed at the AGM. For those who had hoped to be in St. John’s NL for this year’s meeting, rest assured we will be back there in 2024. As Newfoundlanders would say:

How’s she getting on by’s? Listen here don’t worry about the conference being cancelled back on the rock, the next one will be a bigger goin’s on and we will rant and roar like true Newfoundlanders and we will take’r close to the floor! Catch y’all on the flip side by’s!

Thank you again for the confidence you have placed in me. I hope to continue to strive to meet and advance on the goals of our strategic plan and other work started by my predecessors and at the same time continue to allow the Society to adapt and capitalize on any changes that come our way. I look forward to your comments and suggestions on how to improve our future meetings, or any other matter you feel is of importance to the Society and its members.

Sincerely,

Karim Alibhai, MD, FRCSC, RPVI
President, CSVS