SCAI Launches Diagnosis and Treatment Toolkit for PAD

May 1, 2018—The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) announced the launch of the SCAI Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) Diagnosis and Treatment Resource Center. This center will be an ongoing patient-centered quality improvement initiative focused on helping increase PAD awareness in the cardiovascular and internal medicine communities by delving into the underlying risks of this disease state.

More information about the SCAI PAD Diagnosis and Treatment Center is available online here.

According to SCAI, the initiative also aims to improve the management and outcomes for PAD patients by providing a comprehensive review of “PAD 101,” including comprehensive discussions of emerging data for secondary prevention in stable PAD and presentations to understand how to manage PAD patients and when to refer them for invasive therapies.

The multiyear program will be composed of two components: the PAD Diagnosis and Treatment Resource Center, which is a five-part modular resource center hosted on SCAI’s website and packaged for easy download and dissemination, and the webcast series, which is a series of 30-minute webcasts based on the PAD Diagnosis and Treatment Resource Center topics.

Rajesh Swaminathan, MD, and Dmitriy Feldman, MD, are Co-Chairs of the SCAI working group for the program.

In the SCAI announcement, Dr. Swaminathan commented, “I am excited to co-chair this important SCAI initiative on PAD awareness and education. The condition is nearly as prevalent as coronary artery disease, yet still underdiagnosed. Early identification of PAD is key to proper counseling, risk factor modification, and management to prevent future adverse clinical outcomes. The goal here is to provide PAD education, with incorporation of new clinical data in various formats, to inform and engage referring physicians, advanced practice providers, and fellows-in-training.”

Dr. Feldman added, “The invasive therapy module will provide an evidence-based overview of the benefits of endovascular therapy and will help to clarify which patients should be considered for such therapy. Furthermore, this module will focus on the SCAI-led Appropriate Use Criteria in EVT document as well as the newly released at SCAI 2018 Consensus Guidelines for Device Selection in Femoral-Popliteal Arterial Interventions.”