Abstract
This is already our sixth European Venous Course, with important contributions of a lot of experts in the field. 2012 showed again a further increased interest for the care for patients with venous disease. Patient organizations, physicians, medical institutions, hospitals and industry all identify the burden of this disease for the patients and the socioeconomic impact and acknowledged the importance of a better collaboration. The establishment of the Dutch and European Colleges of Phlebology illustrate this. In these two new “vertical societies”, patient organizations, physicians, medical institutions, hospitals and industry are assembled and members in one new society involved in the care for these patients. The optimization of the quality of care for patients with venous disease is the most important bylaw of these societies. This improved collaboration is essential to speed up the implementation of new technologies, because a lot is happening in varicose vein and deep venous pathology diagnostics and treatment.
We are very pleased with the fact that Phlebology agreed again to publish the papers presented during the European venous course in a Supplement of Phlebology. All the important educative contributions for the European Venous Course will now be available for a much bigger audience. We are also still very proud of our, every year well appreciated, venous course book.
The program this year concentrates on innovations for varicose veins, how to identify the patterns of reflux and decide on which therapy to chose. Because in a lot of countries reimbursement for varicose vein surgery is a big issue a complete session deals with the cost effectiveness and discusses the macro economical consequences.
A lot of time is also spend on the innovative treatments for deep venous pathology, with special attention to deep venous thrombosis, deep venous stenting and the impact on diagnostics and treatment for venous ulcers.
Anticoagulation, prophylactic and therapeutic, is changing fast and gets the attention it deserves. Prof. Hugo ten Cate, invited as the keynote speaker, will address the ever-changing issues related to indications and duration of anticoagulation after venous interventions.
Finally a session is dedicated to venous malformations. Opinion leaders address the multidisciplinary approach necessary to identify and treat patients with venous malformations.
Besides this theoretical information, presented in the Supplement, it is recognized that hands-on training is mostly needed and much appreciated. This is why again the popular venous master classes, in which participants get hands-on training in superficial and deep venous treatments, are organized for three days. Last year we had 7 stations for each master class, but due to the increase interest we now have 11 stations in each master class. We also added a third master class for the more advanced physicians in venous pathology, in which difficult venous cases are discussed with leaders in the field.
Parallel to the master classes we have 3 satellite symposia comprehensively addressing important issues in venous disease and the value of a good intuitive electronic patient record combined with a national registry is discussed.
As stated before the collaboration with everybody involved is recognized and already led to the establishment of two new societies. This European Venous Course identified this need for many years and is specially designed for all healthcare workers in the field of venous disease like vascular surgeons, dermatologists, phlebologists, angiologists, vascular technicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. New is the active involvement of hospital management, boards and industry. The fact that industry is more and more involved shows that there focus on education and training is growing. We are convinced that they are our partners and not our sponsors although it is clear that without their financial support a meeting like this is impossible. Therefore, we are very grateful to our major and regular partners for their contribution and confidence in this European Venous Course. Although new Eucomed rules together with the new standards to ensure the independence of CME activities restrict an intensive collaboration it is our opinion that we should integrate more because our goal – to improve the quality of care for the patient with a venous problem- is exactly the same. We are convinced that cooperation with industries and healthcare workers in the field of venous disease will positively influence the quality of care and possible new innovations in venous care.
Maastricht, Aachen 2013