Welcome to the August 2023 edition of the Journal of Vascular Societies Great Britain and Ireland (JVSGBI) which contains two highly topical editorials, four excellent original research articles, and two case reports.

The first editorial by Professor Denis Harkin who is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon in Belfast, Chair of Medical Professionalism at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Chair Elect of the VSGBI Audit and Quality Improvement Committee, brilliantly highlights some of the causes and potential solutions to the huge workforce issues currently facing vascular surgery.

The second editorial, with VERN vascular trainees as lead authors, provides an excellent overview of huge challenges presented by climate change, the plans to reduce healthcare related carbon emissions and specifically potential pathways to develop and deliver carbon neutral vascular services whilst maintaining excellent healthcare standards.

Two original articles address the topic of tissue sampling during diabetic foot surgery. The first article by Devangi et al, presents the results of a survey of UK Vascular surgeons undertaken to assess knowledge, training and experience. The second article by Condie et al presents the results of an audit of the diabetic foot theatre sampling practice. Both highlight areas of suboptimal practice and areas for improvement.

The third original article by Gordon et al, presents a retrospective analysis of over 4,000 patients from the Scottish Physiotherapy Amputee Research Group (SPARG) database to make crucial comparisons of surgical and rehabilitation outcomes for patients undergoing above and through knee amputations.

The fourth original article by Kaneta et al, presents the findings of a survey and interviews conducted to gauge opinion regarding the deliverability of a multicentre randomised trial comparing open and endovascular interventions for common femoral artery atherosclerosis.

These four original articles provide essential intelligence regarding the requirement, design and deliverability of potential high quality research – the provision of a platform for dissemination of this crucial underpinning work has always been a fundamental priority for the JVSGBI.

The two case reports, both written by early career trainees, provide summaries of interesting cases and hopefully will inspire the authors to continue their academic writing and development.

May I take this opportunity on behalf of the JVSGBI editorial board to thank reviewers for their ongoing commitment and hard work, and to encourage authors to continue to submit articles for publication.

Finally, the JVSGBI is two years old – where have those years gone! We are now eligible, and will be applying for Medline status, with a subsequent PubMed application in the near future.