American Venous Forum to Launch American Venous Registry

November 15, 2010—The American Venous Forum (AVF) announced that it will launch the American Venous Registry (AVR) at its 23rd annual meeting to be held in San Diego, California, on February 23 through 26, 2011.

By identifying practice patterns for venous disease diagnosis and treatment across the United States and among varied specialties, the online registry will serve to facilitate the assessment of functional outcomes and comparative analyses of different clinical approaches to venous disease management. This will make the AVR a powerful tool for the development of treatment guidelines, evidence-based modification of public policy, and redirection of health care resources, the AVF stated.

“The AVR standardizes, for the first time, the collaborative collection and analysis of clinical information on venous disease, allowing both physicians and industry to draw valid conclusions regarding treatment efficacy,” said Brajesh K. Lal, MD, chairman of the AVR steering committee. “In addition, the registry is designed to serve as a real-time clinical practice tool for participating physicians, resulting in enhanced care for patients with various forms of venous disease.”

According to the AVF, venous disease remains understudied and is severely underestimated for its impact on public health. AVF stated that chronic venous diseases affect more than 20% of the adult population and are more prevalent than coronary artery disease, carotid artery disease, and peripheral artery disease combined. Additionally, acute venous thromboembolism is the cause of more than 100,000 deaths in the United States each year. However, the care for these conditions is not standardized, noted the AVF.

Dr. Lal observed, “Despite venous disease affecting such a large segment of our population, there has been no platform available to collaboratively evaluate our procedures and outcomes using common language. The AVR fills that important need.”

The registry's goals are:

• Standardize the collection and analysis of clinical information on venous disease
• Identify practice patterns for venous disease diagnosis and treatment nationwide
• Answer research questions prioritized by the AVF
• Provide a real-time clinical practice tool to assist the practices of individual participating physicians

The registry's five modules, which feature several clinical practice tools and the ability to run specific defined benchmarking queries in real time, are:

• Varicose vein module, which is scheduled to launch in February 2011
• Stent module, which is scheduled to launch in early 2011
• Inferior vena cava filter module
• Deep venous thrombosis thrombectomy/lysis module
• Upper extremity deep venous thrombosis module

“This is the only online nationwide registry on venous disease that allows real-time tracking of outcomes from individual practices and benchmarking them to a nationwide aggregate” said AVF president Peter Pappas, MD. Click here to access the AVR Web site.