 Hi, my name is Ann Kim and I'm an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a vascular surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center. I operate on all parts of the body, on the blood vessels and the veins and arteries. I see patients who have carotid artery stenosis, erotic aneurysms, peripheral arterial disease or diseases of the arteries in the legs, and I also provide a dialysis access for patients who need it. I was in medical school when I first got interested in vascular surgery through research. I was interested in it because you can operate on all parts of the body, but also there are many different ways to treat the same problem. There are open surgical techniques as well as endovascular therapy and I think that's what appealed to me the most is the ability to you know have multiple therapies in my toolbox to treat patients. My first goal to patients is to provide them with education about their disease process and then offer them the most current surgical therapy available. I believe in treating patients the way that I would like to be treated and sometimes that involves no surgical or operative intervention and sometimes just medical therapy. I want to come up with a plan with them that will suit both their goals and current priorities in life as well as to you know improve their quality of life.