Presidential address: There really is a pony in there.

It has been a great privilege to serve as the 14th President of the American Venous Forum. The presidents of the forum have been such talented people that I have wondered how I could be inducted into such an exclusive club. Many people work very hard in the advancement of the care of patients with venous and lymphatic disease, but only a few are privileged to serve as president of the American Venous Forum. To all of you who have worked harder than I, made greater contributions than I to the field of venous disease, and contributed more to this organization than I have but have not yet had the honor of this office, I offer my apologizes, but not my hotel room; the presidential suite of this hotel is really very nice! I would like to thank some of the people who have helped me get to this podium. I know it is traditional to thank your family, but I think it demeans the importance of family to regard family as a vehicle to professional success. There are many great families where success outside the family has been limited. Personal relationships develop you as a person not as a professional. Who you are is far more important than what you are. I hope I am a better father than doctor, although I admit that I put in more time being a doctor than a father. Mark Mattos, Tom Wakefield, Jim Menzoian, and Robin Hoyle have combined to make my year as president both efficient and enjoyable. Two of the five people who had the greatest influence on the academic component of my career have passed away in the last year. I am, of course, speaking of John Porter and Gene Strandness. Both provided professional opportunity and, in their own ways, encouragement. Opportunity is priceless. Professor Bollinger is here today as my invited guest, another man who provided me opportunity. Not here are Lloyd Taylor and Rich Yeager, my senior partners in vascular surgery at Oregon. They also have provided opportunity by putting up with the inevitable hassles induced by my ever-changing schedule and have been, and continue to be, advisors and teachers. Early in my career, John Bergan went out of his way to help me develop my interest in venous disease. Jim Deweese, George Johnson, Lazar Greenfield, Jimmy Yao, Bob Hobson, and Tom O’Donnell have been academic surgeon role models. It has been a privilege to be associated with these men through this organization. I am not going to use slides for this talk. I observe that heads of state do not use slides when they give an address. Winston Churchill never used slides and managed to communicate reasonably well. No slides, however, is a bit of a risk for me. I know I am no Sir Winston. I have given hundreds of talks, but I have never given a talk without slides. To hedge this risk, I will not speak for very long. Although it is a great honor to be President of the American Venous Forum, it is a great pain to prepare a presidential address. No one has a lot of practice preparing presidential addresses. Not that many come around each year. Perhaps this is to the great relief of those who politely sit and listen to them and a disappointment to those who view a presidential address as an opportunity for a nap. I am not even sure of the relevance of presidential addresses in the modern world. At one time, a president of a society could use a presidential address to update the membership on a particular topic in which he or she was considered an expert. Now all that information is readily available to everyone on the computer. With a little effort, everyone can know as much as the “expert.” A frequent approach is for the presidents to use their presidential addresses to reminisce about their careers and their impact on that society’s particular field of interest. However, I am not sure I have had all that much impact. My father used to remind me that if I ever began to feel important that a walk though the graveyard would put it all back in the proper perspective. I certainly hope that at age 48 years I am less concerned with what I have done than what I will do or with what I will be privileged to help others accomplish. I do not think a presidential address should be about data or a long reference list. I do believe a presidential address should be about providing a message. The message should be simple. From the Oregon Health and Science University and the Portland Department of Veteran’s Affairs Hospital. Competition of interest: nil. Presented at the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the American Venous Forum, La Jolla, Calif, Feb 21-24, 2002. Reprint requests: Gregory L. Moneta, MD, Professor of Surgery, Chief Vascular Surgery, Oregon Health & Science University, and Portland Department of Veteran’s Affairs Hospital, Portland, OR 97201-3098 (e-mail: monetag@ohsu.edu). J Vasc Surg 2002;36:873-6. Copyright © 2002 by The Society for Vascular Surgery and The American Association for Vascular Surgery. 0741-5214/2002/$35.00 0 24/6/128634 doi:10.1067/mva.2002.128634