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For Release: June 29, 2010
Contact:
David Corriveau, Media Relations Officer, Dartmouth Medical School, at David.A.Corriveau@Dartmouth.edu or 603-653-0771; or
Jill Goodwin, Director of Communications, Society for Vascular Surgery, 312-334-2308 or jgoodwin@vascularsociety.org

Vascular surgeons elect Dartmouth's Zwolak president


Robert M. Zwolak, M.D.

Chicago—The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) elected Dartmouth surgeon Robert M. Zwolak, M.D., as its president on June 11, during the society's annual meeting.

A professor of surgery at Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and director of the Non-Invasive Vascular Laboratory at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), Zwolak has served on the SVS Board of Directors since 2003. According to Anton Sidawy, immediate past president of SVS, Zwolak "was instrumental" in the crafting and passage of the federal legislation that since January of 2007 has required Medicare to cover ultrasound screenings for beneficiaries at high risk of suffering abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA).

"He has dedicated his time and effort to positioning SVS as the leading vascular health society in the country," Sidawy says. "SVS is honored to have him in the role of president-elect."

Zwolak, who also is chief of surgery at the Dartmouth-affiliated Veterans Affairs Medical Center in nearby White River Junction, Vt., has served for many years as the chair of the SVS Government Relations Committee. Among his federal appointments, he has served on the Ambulatory Payment Category Panel of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). He also held the position of governor of the American College of Surgeons for two terms.

Zwolak came to Dartmouth in 1987, after finishing his vascular fellowship at the University of Washington. He earned his M.D. at Albany (N.Y.) Medical College in 1979, and served his residency in general surgery at the University of Michigan Medical Center.

More information on AAA is available here and here.

-DMS-

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