The executive leadership of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and its APMA counterparts took another major step towards building a strong collaborative clinical partnership between vascular surgeons and podiatrists during our meeting this weekend. In just one short year, SVS and APMA have accomplished the following:

1. Completed a joint statement on the team approach to the diabetic foot. 
2. Completed a joint supplement/special issue on the diabetic foot in the Journal of Vascular Surgery and Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association (set to publish early this fall).
3. Ran joint clinical educational programs at SVS and APMA annual scientific meetings.
4. Completed diabetic foot practice guidelines to be published by the end of 2010 or early 2011.
5. SVS has written a letter to Congress in support of APMA’s Title XIX legislation.
6. APMA and SVS have had official representation at the APMA House of Delegates and SVS Annual Scientific Conference.

APMA and SVS have a very ambitious agenda for the next 12 months, including the development of a joint research initiative, strategy for residency genesis, joint quality measures, DPM membership in SVS, criteria for diabetes centers of excellence, joint clinical education programs for family physicians, and joint public education campaigns.

The APMA-SVS partnership is just one classic example of what APMA is doing to create an awareness of the important role that podiatric physicians play in the delivery of medical and surgical foot and ankle care. The education and advocacy APMA conducts on behalf of its members every day are the pathway to parity and the achievement of Vision 2015.

Pictured above top, left to right: Joseph Caporusso, DPM, APMA vice president; Anton Sidawy, MD, MPH, SVS past president, chief of surgery at the VA in Washington, DC, and professor of surgery at Georgetown University and George Washington University Schools of Medicine; Glenn Gastwirth, DPM, APMA executive director and CEO; Peter Gloviczki, MD, SVS vice president, and chair of the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Surgery at Mayo Clinic. Bottom, left to right: Richard Cambria, MD, SVS president-elect, and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School; Robert Zwolak, MD, PhD, SVS president and professor of surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; Kathleen Stone, DPM, APMA president; and Michael King, DPM, APMA president-elect.