September is National PAD Awareness Month, and the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) will spend the month not only calling attention to causes and treatment for the disease, but also planning a peripheral arterial disease (PAD) skills workshop.
The hands-on workshop, aimed at practicing surgeons, includes more than 10 hours of didactics, small-group sessions and four hours of skills training. It will be held Feb. 11 and 12, 2022, at the Orthopedic Learning Center (OLC) in the SVS headquarters office building in Rosemont, Illinois. To be able to provide individual and personalized attention, attendance is limited to 75 attendees. Members have long requested such a workshop because they treat PAD patients frequently but don’t necessarily have the latest skills and knowledge, said Vikram Kashyap, MD, program chair alongside Patrick Geraghty, MD, with additional planning coming from Daniel McDevitt, MD. Fifteen “top-notch” surgeon-instructors will teach, the doctors said.
“Surgeons like being trained by surgeons who they know, who can speak clearly about the advantages of different therapies and different clinical settings,” said Kashyap.
Community practitioners do not typically have a great many opportunities for hands-on instruction, added McDevitt, chair of the new SVS Community Practice Section.
“Our surgeons read about techniques but need a comfort level when they start executing them,” he said. “Educational opportunities are limited, as is the ability to try equipment unimpeded.”
In addition, new devices are introduced frequently. “Surgeons need to know ‘where does this new device fit into my practice,’” said Geraghty. “They want clear feedback and advice.”
The workshop will feature only approved devices grouped by areas of different facets of participants’ clinical practices.
Workshop topics will cover the entire gamut of PAD, including the latest tools and treatments such as deep vein arterialization, tibial interventions, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and intravascular lithotripsy. Of note, cadaver specimens, table-top models and hands-on deployment will be utilized to optimize the sessions.
Additional didactics on national trends in open and endovascular therapies, treatment settings, complications, plus billing and coding will be highlighted.
Adding this training is an important step for the Society and its members, said Kashyap. “Every day, every month, we have tremendous changes in treating occlusive disease. Feedback from the Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) showed that members want really hands-on, detailed information on advanced endovascular techniques.”
Registration will open the first week in November. Look for information in the Pulse biweekly electronic newsletter, on social media and other SVS channels.
