UPDATES FROM THE VASCULAR SOCIETIES
British Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in limb Absence Rehabilitation. (BACPAR)
www.bacpar.org | @BACPAR_official
The British Society of Endovascular Therapy (BSET)
www.bset.co.uk | @BSETnews
British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR)
www.bsir.org | @BSIR_News
BSIR have been working on a new longer-term strategy, with input from Full Council, Committees and now membership. The Executive Officers are hosting a roadshow around regional IR meetings to engage the membership in the content and gather their feedback and ideas. The strategy can be found here https://www.bsir.org/society/our-strategy/.
The inaugural VITALS meeting (Vascular Innovation & Technology Advanced Learning Symposium) took place on 24-25th March at Sopwell House in St Albans. The programme chairs, Dr Raghu Lakshminarayan and Professor Mo Hamady, and the BSIR Vascular Special Interest Committee, welcomed over 140 delegates to the residential meeting for two full days of interactive discussions with expert panels. Feedback from delegates, faculty and industry has been overwhelmingly positive. BSIR are securing dates for 2026 and anticipate growth in the event next year.
The BSIR Nurses & Radiographers Special Interest Committee held a successful CPD meeting in March, in partnership with Terumo. This was shortly followed by the BSIR Basics Skills course in early April, which welcomed over 25 medical students and trainees to Leicester for hands-on learning. Late April held the annual BSIR Advanced Skills Course, which took place in Leeds, attended by 20 ST4-6 trainees for more in-depth lectures and hands-on workshops.
The BSIR Education & Training Committee have been collaborating with the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh on increasing IR involvement and exposure to their ‘Non-technical Skills for Surgeons’ (NOTSS) course, with the aim of increasing the number of IRs involved as faculty for this programme and encouraging IR trainees to attend.
Coming up in May is the Paeds IR UK meeting in Birmingham, followed by IOUK in London in June. You can find out more about BSIR events and webinars here: https://www.bsir.org/events/.
Save the date in your diaries for BSIR 2025 in Liverpool on 11th-13th November. An overview of the programme can be found at: www.bsirmeeting.org
Rouleaux Club
www.Rouleauxclub.com | @RouleauxClub
The Rouleaux Executive Committee have had a busy few months, as ever. Our ASiT representative attended their annual conference, this year in Belfast where the pre-conference course was attended by budding future vascular surgeons. Anurhadha also attended the (impromptu) meeting with head of COPSS (Andrew Garnham) and chair of JCST (Esther McLarty) and pan specialty representation. Here there was discussion regarding the new curriculum, better networking and dissipation of information through specialty reps. Rouleaux was also formally asked for our feedback on the latest version of the new curriculum, which we submitted to ISCP/JCST.
We’ve submitted our draft program for the RC session at VSASM; this year’s theme will be along the line of “the lesser talked about training obstacles”. Last year’s winner of the Inaugural Averil Mansfield Prize Ms Mei Nortley will be speaking and we’re delighted Professor Scarlett McNally Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon has accepted our invitation to speak along with Miss Claire Dawkins, Consultant Vascular Surgeon in Newcastle.
Our joint Rouleaux/BSIRT session at BSET is taking shape too.
There have been concerns raised to ourselves about the lack of notice regarding invitation to interview for ST3s, potentially due to delays in releasing portfolio scores. In addition, there are applicants who applied for the section 2 exam May sitting, in good time, but weren’t able to be accommodated. Both of these issues we will discuss in person at upcoming VS meetings and through the exam board and SAC.
Abstract submission to the VS MDT session is open and submissions are to be encouraged. Case submissions are invited from nurses, scientists and all grades of resident doctors involved in caring for Vascular patients including trainee members of the joint Vascular Societies' and must be submitted electronically via the submission portal using the link found below.
Winning entries will have the opportunity to work with a member of the Vascular Society / Rouleaux Club to ensure the learning points in the cases are maximised and to
make the presentations as interactive as possible.
The session is a relatively informal space designed to generate discussion and facilitate learning whilst offering a national presentation opportunity for the speaker.
This month we will be launching the second year of the "Averil Mansfield trainer of the year" prize again, please encourage submissions from your units.
Society of Vascular Nurses (SVN)
www.svn.org.uk | @vascularnurses
The College and Society for clinical Vascular Science (CSVS)
www.svtgbi.org.uk | @svtgbi
Vascular Anaesthesia Society of Great Britain & Ireland (VASGBI)
www.vasgbi.com | @vasgbi
The purpose of the Vascular Anaesthesia Society of Great Britain and Ireland (VASGBI) is to promote excellence in the peri-operative and anaesthetic care of patients undergoing vascular surgery. The committee organise educational meetings, promote research in vascular anaesthesia, support development of guidelines, and represent our speciality within other national bodies. We have recently advertised 3 places available for election to serve on the VASGBI committee. If you know of any committed colleagues who may wish to take on this responsibility, please encourage them to get in touch via [email protected]
In March 2025 we hosted the biennial residents’ symposium. This virtual one-day meeting is designed primarily for anaesthetists in training and covers core FRCA topics in vascular anaesthesia, covering material essential for final exam preparation. It is also popular amongst anaesthetists who don’t have a regular commitment to vascular anaesthesia, but who cover out of hours emergency vascular surgery. The meeting is recorded and content is available to view via the VASGBI website VASGBI Trainee Symposium 2025 - VASGBI . It may be of interest to vascular surgeons or other specialists who wish to gain a deeper insight into the thought processes of vascular anaesthetists.
Members of our committee are involved in various different ongoing projects. We currently have a survey open to investigate the use of tranexamic acid in vascular surgery. Reduction in blood and blood product transfusion is especially important considering ongoing national supply issues. If you are interested in participating in our survey, please click here Tranexamic Acid in Vascular Surgery. If you have a survey you would like to distribute to our members, please get in touch to discuss.
The NVR report 2024 summary for anaesthetists is available to read on our website, if you know anyone who may appreciate this condensed version relevant to anaesthesia, it can be found here: National Vascular Registry Report 2024: Summary for Anaesthetists - VASGBI. Members of our committee are involved in developing audit and quality improvement tools for the Royal College of Anaesthetists to facilitate local projects which aim to address some of the issues highlighted in the NVR reports.
We regularly update the clinical guidelines area of our website; this area is accessible to VASGBI members only, but if you are interested in any of our clinical guidelines please get in touch via our administrator Jane Heppenstall [email protected]
Applications are open (but will close soon) for our trainee research development grants VASGBI Trainee Development Grant — National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia. Do encourage any trainees to consider applying.
The next VASGBI ASM will be held in London at the RSM on 15th and 16th September 2025 hosted by Dan Taylor and colleagues from GSTT. The programme is in the final draft stage and will soon be available on the VASGBI website - VASGBI Annual Scientific Meeting 2025
The Vascular and Endovascular Research Network (VERN)
www.vascular-research.net | @VascResearchNet
The Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland
www.vascularsociety.org.uk | @VSGBI
Article DOI:
Journal Reference:
J.Vasc.Soc.G.B.Irel. 2025;4(3):163-164
Publication date:
May 30, 2025
