Elections?

The SVS is currently soliciting nominations for election to the positions of VP, Treasurer, and Secretary. Because this is an election year in the USA, I wonder how the current crop of Republican and Democratic candidates would campaign if they were vascular surgeons running for an Executive position in the SVS. As a corollary, I also question how they would be elected President of the nation if we use the format the SVS uses to elect its Executive. The following examples of what I think their platforms would be implies no resemblance to any current or past executive member. Rather, I use these candidates’ personalities to identify issues that may be of concern to the SVS and its members.

Dr. Bernie Sanders is horrified that most Medicare payments go to “the top 1%” of doctors, most of whom are doing unnecessary procedures like venous ablations for spider veins or angioplasties for 15-block claudication. He would support a move to a single payer “Medicare for all” to make sure that all vascular surgeons were compensated equitably for what they do, regardless of their form of employment. As someone who wants to limit wars, he would not get involved in any turf battles with cardiologists or interventional radiologists.

While Dr. Hilary Clinton has held many high office positions in the SVS, she would emphasize that there has been only one prior female President, Dr. Julie Freischlag, and so she would claim that it is certainly time for another woman to lead the organization. As a pragmatist, she would try to follow the leadership principles of past President Perler. However, Dr. Clinton has been accused of taking money from the Super PACS, such as the device manufacturers, and so would be indebted to Industry.

Dr. Martin O’Malley, a busy community practice vascular surgeon would have to drop out of the race. Unfortunately, because none of the voters had any idea what a vascular surgeon does, he would get very few votes. Most of the voters in his constituency think that cardiologists take care of vascular conditions so they would cast their vote for anyone other than a vascular surgeon.

Dr. Donald Trump, on the other hand, is a very rich private practice vascular surgeon who had his own medical show on national television. Accordingly, while he had achieved notoriety, he would probably be envied by academic vascular surgeons. Having accumulated so much money investing in angiosuites and medical real estate he even had his own plane to fly between hospitals (which he also owned!). His penchant for hiring only the most beautiful nurses is common knowledge. A drawback is that he had never served on any committee of the SVS exposing his lack of understanding of the organization’s function. But this shortcoming would not bother him as he would lead “by hiring really smart people.” He proclaimed, without substantive explanation, that he would make the SVS “great again.” His popularity would be based on his promise to “build a wall” to keep other specialists from being able to treat vascular patients.

Dr. Jeb Bush was well regarded by the established Executive, some of whom considered him “part of the family.” However, he would not acknowledge any relationship with these “relatives.” He would use his success as President of the Florida Vascular Society to support his candidacy. However, Dr. Marco Rubio, who had trained under him at Florida State Medical School in Tallahassee, would suggest that he had not done such a good job after all.

Dr. Marco Rubio, even as a young resident, had his sights set on the Presidency. However, although he succeeded in getting elected to many positions, even the Board, he had never really achieved anything substantial. He had not authored any major research or excelled in clinical practice. His campaign would consist of repeating derogatory remarks about the current President and Dr. Jeb Bush.

Dr. Ted Cruz had served on the Board but was not well liked. His views were very conservative. He was adamantly against a separate Board of Vascular Surgery. Therefore, he would solicit the votes of the “Evangelicals” consisting of older surgeons, many of whom still did General Surgery. He was also the most academic candidate having completed his fellowship at Harvard. He would insist that only academics with a strong conservative viewpoint deserve to be elected.

Dr. Chris Christie, on the other hand, favors splitting vascular surgery from general surgery. He will belligerently state that if a bridge is built to maintain the relationship he would make sure his officers make it impassable.