The American Venous Forum’s 5th Annual Vein Forum: Comprehensive Venous Management for the Practicing Clinician course is taking place in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 5-6, 2014, at the Hyatt Boston Harbor. The meeting is structured for the practicing venous specialist, whereby key topics including superficial disease, deep venous disease, venous obstruction, venous thromboembolism, pelvic venous and vascular malformation disease, use of anticoagulants, pharmacologic therapy for chronic venous disease, and wound care will be discussed by experts in venous disease. Moreover, each topic will emphasize the clinical relevance to daily practice. Also included in the course are panel discussions to allow participants to ask questions as they pertain to the topics discussed and how they would help them in their clinical practice. Expert faculty includes Ellen Dillavou, MD, FACS, RPVI (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center), Steven Elias, MD, FACS (Englewood Hospital and Medical Center), Chieh-Min Fan, MD, FSIR (Brigham and Women’s Hospital), Paul Gagne, MD, FACS, RVT (Southern Connecticut Vascular Center), David Gillespie, MD, RVT, FACS (Southcoast Healthcare System), Mark Iafrati, MD (Tufts Medical Center), William Marston, MD (University of North Carolina), Patrick Muck, MD (Good Samaritan Hospital), Marc Passman, MD (University of Alabama at Birmingham), Joseph Raffetto, MD, FACS, FSVM (VA Boston HCS), Julianne Stoughton, MD (Mass General Hospital), and Harold Welch, MD (Lahey Clinic).

The Vein Forum will also include live ultrasound imaging of patients with a variety of venous disorders, with audience participation and ample opportunity for discussion. New this year, Case-Based Workshops (CBW) are incorporated into the course. The faculty will have a variety of simple to complex cases that will be presented to small groups, with the goal to understand the venous problem, the diagnostic modalities, the treatment options, the end results, and be able to apply the knowledge in similar scenarios encountered in daily clinical practice. The CBW are intended to demonstrate the indications and uses of the many products that are commercially available, and for the participants to ask the experts for guidance and recommendations in a variety of topics that will include endovenous ablation, iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis and pharmacomechanical thrombolysis/catheter-directed thrombolysis, inferior vena cava filters, use of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), ultrasound use in chronic venous disease and deep vein thrombosis, use of compression and wound care in chronic venous disease, and sclerotherapy. The American Venous Forum is very excited about this program and the breadth of education contained and certainly hopes that participants will find it rewarding to participate in the Vein Forum 2014 meeting in beautiful Boston!