Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease Message from the Chair

Luke Packard Brewster, MD, PhD, FAHA

I am very grateful to you, our PVD members and to our PVD leadership team for providing me with the honor of serving as the Chair of the Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD). I have been a member of the AHA for over 22 years. I joined the AHA as a post-doc during my general surgery residency and applied for the AHA post-doctoral fellowship in 2004. This past year, one of my graduate students was awarded a predoctoral fellowship. Through these many years, the AHA continues to serve you, our members, with opportunity, a united voice on vascular health, a firm commitment to scientific advancement and patient care.

Our council just happens to be The Boss! We have the most diverse member base, including clinicians across many specialties, scientists, engineers, and learners of all sorts. We have had the best leadership, and it is an absolute privilege to follow Drs. Henke and Kim and to work with Dr. Aaron Aday, our new Vice-chair of PVD Council. We also have the most committed members, and part of my position is to make sure to find important work for you through the PVD Council to move vascular health forward in the 101st year of the AHA.

Personally, I have benefitted greatly from amazing training, a rich family life, and colleagues I consider friends. I work as a vascular surgeon, I have a translational and clinical research lab, and I have the best partners and research team. Together, these blessings prepare me well to serve you effectively and help us all function to improve the vascular health of patients broadly.

The AHA is a supportive body that provides a safe space to consider the patient first and specialties second. The rich talent and representation of our PVD Council members brings energy to our initiatives, and this energy enables our members to have an impact at home, at their institutions, and at the AHA. As such, the PVD Council provides a number of opportunities for our members to serve.

We also provide dedicated programming at two primary meetings:

• Scientific Sessions in November, where the PVD track allows us to educate on the latest advances in vascular clinical care and highlight the best vascular-related abstracts. Fellows in training are encouraged to apply for the FIT travel grant to attend Scientific Sessions. Early career members are encouraged to apply for the Jay D. Coffman Early Career Investigator Award.
• Vascular Discovery: From Genes to Medicine Scientific Sessions, a meeting jointly programmed by the Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB), basic, translational, and clinical science. This multidisciplinary conference showcasing the vascular community at its broadest offers opportunities for knowledge sharing and collaboration for investigators at every level. This meeting is often paired with the Vascular Research Initiatives Conference, held by the Society for Vascular Surgery, and allows for further synergies. We are very proud to be able to award the Robert W. Hobson, II, MD Early Career Investigator Award and the Alan T. Hirsch, MD Mid-Career Award in Vascular Medicine at Vascular Discovery

In the coming 2 years, we plan on building consensus agreements on patient-centric care and outreach collaborations between Councils for the communities we serve. We welcome your suggestions on initiatives that would be helpful to you, your patients, and the vascular community. We want to highlight the work you do for your patients and the AHA through our Council’s social media platforms.

If you reached this site on your path to the end of the internet, I look forward to meeting you at our AHA meetings, I invite you to become a member of the council, and I hope you will join us in these exciting efforts.

If you are already a member, please review whether you meet the criteria to become a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA). There is always work to be done, and if you are also passionate about vascular disease, I invite you to apply for a PVD Council committee position.

In times like these, your commitment to optimizing current patient care, defining the road forward for future patient care, and staying true to who you are and why we do the important work that we do provides our Council with a clear mission and direction along the narrow way.

As such, it is my distinct privilege to serve you over the next two years.

Luke Packard Brewster, MD, PhD, FAHA
Chair, Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD)