Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A Society changes its name: The Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society becomes the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society

2014; Elsevier BV; Volume: 60; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jvs.2014.07.001

1097-6809

Vikram S. Kashyap, Karl A. Illig, Murray L. Shames, Thomas S. Maldonado, Jonathan L. Eliason, W. Darrin Clouse,

Aortic aneurysm repair treatments

It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.—Charles DarwinIf you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.—Neil Peart The name of any professional group should reflect the membership. Thus, after many years of discussion and debate, the Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society has changed its name to the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society (VESS). This Society was formulated in 1976 as the Peripheral Vascular Surgery Club and has grown during 40 years to become a national group devoted to the young vascular surgeon in his or her first 15 years of practice. The rationale for changing the name of the Society was based on multiple elements. 1. Peripheral vascular surgery is considered an outdated term from the 1970s differentiating cardiac/coronary surgeons from vascular surgeons. Most current vascular surgeons and trainees perform plenty of “central” vascular surgery and intervention including thoracic, abdominal, visceral, and central venous procedures. 2. Peripheral vascular surgery does not match the Board Certification title for our field. In the recent era, all American Board of Surgery certificates are for Vascular Surgery. In addition, most practices, academic divisions, and vascular journals do not include the term peripheral in their title. 3. The public barely understands what a vascular surgeon does, let alone a “peripheral vascular surgeon.” A consistent and cohesive name helps build the brand for vascular surgeons. “Peripheral” connotes something of less importance—certainly something we do not want to highlight. 4. Endovascular procedures are becoming a larger component of our members' practices. The process to change the Society name appeared simple but actually was an arduous task. An ad hoc committee including the authors of this communication came up with a list of possible alternative names, performed a SWOT analysis, surveyed the membership, obtained support from the vast majority of past Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society presidents, and obtained legal and trademark clearance. Of note, most (69.8%) of the membership chose this name over other choices, and the membership approved the name change unanimously at the annual business meeting (January 2014, Steamboat Springs, Colo). Our new logo keeps the themes from our previous one (Fig). Organizations and institutions that succeed must be flexible and adapt with changing conditions. Businesses (eg, Esso, Datsun) frequently change names. Professional societies have also successfully changed their title. For instance, the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology formally changed its name to the Society of Interventional Radiology in 2002 to reflect an expanding field in neurologic and oncologic interventions. The new name, Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society, reflects the professional work of more than 1000 members. We believe this change will enhance the prominence of our Society. This Society has made great progress during the last 40 years. We believe this step, along with other strategic moves, sets the stage for continued success in the next 40 years.