Venous thromboembolic disease (VTE) afflicts a large number of patients each year. Treatment of the various disease states that occur in patients with VTE, including pulmonary embolism, deep venous thrombosis, and post-thrombotic syndrome requires a multidisciplinary team of physicians capable of applying the latest techniques and bringing current research to bear on decision making.
The ACTiVE Meeting
To build that well-trained team, the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) has created a comprehensive, multi-year, multidisciplinary VTE meeting—ACTiVE, Advanced Therapies in Venous Interventions, occurring Sept. 27–29, 2018 at the Westin Michigan Avenue in Chicago. ACTiVE’s faculty features VTE thought leaders in interventional radiology, vascular surgery, cardiology, hematology and pulmonology.
The Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT)
The treatment of high-risk PE is complex and one of the most common causes of death in the United States. A Pulmonary Embolism Response Team, or PERT, allows for consensus decision making and application of advanced modalities, such as catheter-directed thrombolysis, in an effort to improve long-term outcomes.
“These multidisciplinary rapid response teams include multiple specialties working together to optimize care for increasingly complicated PE patients,” said faculty member James Horowitz, MD, FACC, director of cardiovascular ICU at NYU-Langone Health in New York. “At ACTiVE 2018, I'll discuss the benefits of PERTs, how to form a team, and the international PERT Consortium.” With a lessons-learned session and an interactive panel case review of a real-life PERT, ACTiVE provides the tools to begin to explore PERTs with an institution and build one from the ground up.
The Importance of Patient Selection
Patient selection is key to success in managing critically ill PE patients. ACTiVE will also explore how to select patients for interventional VTE care.
“Why haven’t the major societies endorsed more interventional therapies for the patient with submassive pulmonary embolism? When my patient looks sick, but they are not in shock, how do I know which direction to turn for guidance in the best treatment strategy? We will discuss these important questions and how to involve both the patient and referring doctors in the discussion to achieve the best therapeutic outcome,” said Daniel R. Schimmel, MD, MS, an interventional cardiologist and associate professor of cardiology at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, and ACTiVE faculty member.
In “PE risk stratification: Patient selection for advanced therapies,” the discussion will focus on delivering the right treatment to the right patient to maximize care.
ACTiVE Discussions and Tools
The two-day course will also include a discussion of focused examination of the venous patient and application of grading systems. “CEAP classification and Venous Clinical Severity Score (VCSS) are valuable tools for clinical decision making and for communicating with payors,” said Fedor Lurie, MD, PhD, RPVI, RVT, an adjunct research professor in the division of vascular surgery at the University of Michigan. “During my ACTiVE talk, I will discuss several clinical cases to illustrate these tools to guide a focused examination of venous patients.”
Tools for patient management will also feature in a session led by Antonios P. Gasparis, MD, FACS, a vascular and endovascular surgeon and professor of surgery at Stony Brook Medicine in Stony Brook, N.Y.
“Managing patients with combined superficial and deep vein disease has been a controversial topic, where decision-making is dependent on the clinical presentation and severity of disease in each system,” said Gasparis, who is also the director of Stony Brook’s Center for Vein Care and Wound Center. “I will present a clinical algorithm to assist in the management of such patients.”
In addition to these multidisciplinary discussions, attendees are assured close interaction with faculty and the opportunity to participate in case-based panel discussions. They will also obtain hands-on experience with the latest technologies in the VTE space, including a faculty-led workshop on advanced inferior vena cava (IVC) filter retrieval techniques featuring 3-D printed IVC models.
Early bird registration for ACTiVE ends Aug. 31, 2018. Learn more and register today at sirweb.org/active.
Kush R. Desai, MD, is interventional radiologist at Northwestern University, Chicago and a program coordinator for SIR’s 2018 ACTiVE meeting.
For ACTiVE program and registration information, visit sirweb.org/active.