The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) will host a day and a half of sessions aimed at quality improvement at its annual meeting, held in conjunction with the SVS Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM).
VQI@VAM runs from noon to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday. A separate registration fee applies. Organizers suggest that physicians with time constraints on Wednesday attend from noon to 5 p.m.
The meeting is designed to meet the needs of physicians, nurses, data managers, quality improvement professionals and administrators. Data managers, in particular, will find the Tuesday sessions beneficial, though all members may attend.
The VQI provides its members with benchmark data to help with improvement projects and let VQI members know how they are doing compared to others. The VQI provides forums for its members to meet and discuss their data via its 18 regional groups on a semi-annual basis. Leaders also are exploring how to expand utilizing the VQI in support of tracking compliance with SVS clinical practice guidelines.
Highlights of VQI@VAM include:
- Tuesday’s interactive panel discussions on the carotid, aortic, lower-extremity and venous registries. VQI is holding registry education sessions through July as a basis for these discussions and attendees are asked to bring their questions to these expert panel presentations
- The Quality Improvement Poster Reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The reception features approximately 30 posters of quality improvement projects, cocktails and appetizers and the chance for meeting participants to visit with each other. Attendees can meet the projects’ authors to understand how VQI data is being used to improve the quality of care
- An increased number of quality improvement (QI) case studies designed to help participants to initiate their own QI projects
- How to use VQI quality improvement tools and resources to initiate and sustain QI projects
- The annual meeting will also see the announcement of the VQI Trainee Program
In addition, there were will be a series of presentations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) covering a range of topics. Robert Craig, DO, will deliver a talk entitled, “Medical device event reporting: Why your engagement is important!” Ronald Fairman, MD, will present, “Investigational device exemptions (IDEs) and physician-sponsored IDEs: Why they are required and what are the benefits?” Robert Lee, MD will speak on, “The role of post-market data in regulatory decision-making: How can registries help?”
Elsewhere, there will be a celebration of the VQI’s 10th anniversary, with program updates and participation awards, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Other topics on the program include ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) guidelines and applications for VQI, tracking frailty, using the VQI to track opioid use, reporting and analytics, piloting patient-reported outcomes in the VQI, and VQI collaboration with the International Consortium of Vascular Registries.
“Our goal at the VQI annual meeting is to present education such that the team can better extract data to put in our registries and then understand and analyze that data to implement quality improvement initiatives,” said Medical Director Jens Eldrup-Jorgensen, MD.
VQI@VAM debuted in 2016, with changes annually to present information of increased value, he said. “We make modifications based directly on attendee feedback,” he said. “In 2016, participants said they wanted networking and a chance to gather, so we added the poster reception, which has been hugely popular. We’ve added research, we’ve added abstraction. And we think it’s getting better and better.”
Registration fees for VQI@VAM are $295 for in-person attendance and $220 to view sessions remotely (streaming). Visit vascular.org/RegisterVAM21 for the registration site. Learn more at vascular.org/VQIVAM21.
When: Tuesday, Aug. 17, 12 p.m.–6:30 p.m., and Wednesday, Aug. 18, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. VQI Annual Meeting
