VENOUS History

In 2004, several of us began thinking about forming an association of physicians and other healthcare professionals who have a special interest in venous disease in India. Our hope was to model this association after the American Venous Forum, the European Venous Forum, and other phlebological societies. At that time, discussions about venous disease in India were primarily confined to a session or two at the annual meeting of the Vascular Society of India or were shared on the sidelines. The first program that focused on venous disease in India was the Continuing Surgical Education Programme in Vascular Surgery and Venous Diseases that was held at Christian Medical College in Vellore, India in 2005. There I met with Dr. David Sadhu and Dr. Sunil Agarwal of Vellore, Dr. Saravanan Sunderaraj of Chennai, and Dr. Roy Varghese of Trichur and brought up the idea of forming a venous association. Not long thereafter, Saravanan and I both attended the 2006 International Congress of the Asian Society for Vascular Surgery in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where we again discussed the possibility of forming a venous association. We all became very busy and the momentum slowed when Roy brought up the idea one more time. This time I talked with Sunil, as well as with Dr. Ashok Gupta of New Delhi, Dr. Ramakrishna Pinjala of Hyderabad, and Dr. Vasudev Rao of Bengalooru. Now we had a group of seven who were ready and willing to take on the responsibility of forming the Venous Association of India. In April 2007, the seven of us met to create the organization's bylaws and Saravanan registered the Venous Association of India in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The first Executive Committee was initially comprised of seven members.

Malay Patel