Who are the Vascular Society Presidents?

BACKGROUND

We noted distinct differences between the demographics among the presidents of various vascular societies. To help characterize these among the present United States, Canadian, and European vascular societies, we queried the websites for the United States, Canadian, and European vascular societies in a systematic review for the names of their presidents since their respective inceptions.

METHODS

Age and ethnicity were determined by a search on healthgrades.com, Google, and online obituaries. The year of ascendency to the presidency and the year of birth were used as identifying time points.

RESULTS

There are significant differences between the ages of the presidents of the various vascular societies. While the presidents of Vascular and Endovascular Surgical Society were significantly younger than those of every other vascular society examined, Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society, Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery, and Society of Vascular Medicine were also significantly younger than the remainder of the societies examined (P < 0.0001). The presidents of the remaining societies were not significantly different in age from each other. When comparing the ages of the presidents in the first and last decades of each society, 2 were found to have significantly increased (Society of Vascular Medicine [P = 0.0029] and Vascular and Endovascular Surgical Society [P < 0.0001]), while 2 others were found to have significantly decreased (New England Society for Vascular Surgery [P = 0.0092] and Eastern Vascular Society [P = 0.0085]). Of the 532 total entries for these presidents examined over these 13 societies, 19 (3.6%) of these were filled by women and 37 (7%) with minorities.

CONCLUSIONS

There was a great deal of variability in terms of age, gender, and minority representation of the presidents among the vascular societies examined. While the share of women and minorities to serve as presidents in vascular societies varied between societies, both groups were under-represented across the board. However, in recent years, the number of women and minorities elected as presidents of vascular societies has been trending upwards.