PERT Consortium Holds Inaugural Pulmonary Embolism Research Collaborative Meeting

April 26, 2022—In an effort to address key issues in pulmonary embolism (PE) and associated venous thromboembolic (VTE) disease, the National PERT Consortium recently held its inaugural Pulmonary Embolism Research Collaborative (PERC) meeting in Washington, DC.

When designing the sessions, PERT aimed to explore gaps in awareness, recognition, and diagnosis of PE in the medical and lay communities, as well as variations in care delivery once PE is identified. Specifically, the organization determined that the development of a more robust evidence base is needed to better identify PE, enable proper risk stratification and triage, and reduce unnecessary variations in care—essentially leading to treatment of the right patient at the right time with the right therapy.

Among those in attendance were expert physicians, representatives from the United States FDA, clinically oriented industry members, and patient-care advocates. The discussion was led by PERC meeting chairs Drs. Terry Bowers and Ken Rosenfield from The PERT Consortium and Dr. Eleni Whatley from the FDA.

“The goal of this initial PERC was to bring together key stakeholders and provide a forum to establish pragmatic consensus data elements with common standards and definitions,” PERT Consortium leadership said in comments to Endovascular Today. “These will form the foundation for the evaluation, treatment, and assessment of patients with acute pulmonary embolism in clinical care, quality assurance, and research endeavors.”

Rather than arriving at specific algorithms of care, the PERC meeting aimed to clarify what information is needed to ultimately inform therapeutic decisions and best practices, identifying the following areas of development toward standardized consensus:

• clinical presentation and risk stratification
• decisions regarding escalation of care
• mechanisms of action and impact of specific therapeutic interventions
• imaging and physiologic parameters
• appropriate measures of clinical outcomes

“There was tremendous excitement at this inaugural PERC meeting regarding the stated objectives,” said the organizers in summarizing the progress made over the course of the day’s sessions. “Many important topics were discussed, and significant headway was made toward identification of important core data elements, standardized definitions, and needs for additional data to inform patient care.”

Next, PERC leadership is beginning the process of publishing the work in a white paper to disseminate it.

“Notably, an important byproduct of PERC—perhaps what will ultimately be the most consequential—was bringing together PE stakeholders and leaders to network and exchange ideas, and to align regarding our shared goals to reduce the impact of PE,” they concluded.