Scenic Jasper, Alberta Canada was the site for this year’s Western Vascular Society (WVS). For the first time ever, an entire session was dedicated to diabetic limb salvage and team-oriented models of care, specifically. “Teamwork works”, noted Joseph Mills, Professor of Surgery and Chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, who serves as President of the WVS. “What we are seeing now is a proliferation of university and integrated community programs adopting models of care that marry podiatric and vascular surgery, among other specialties, to help heal wounds and prevent amputations.”
The sessions featured a final program of noted invited surgeon researchers. David G. Armstrong, Professor of Surgery and Director of the University of Arizona’s Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA), who was the first invited podiatric surgeon at the WVS, noted “This session was important not only that it was the first of its kind, but that it featured new definitions of how we classify disease of the lower limb in people with diabetes. There is no question but that this will lead to better collaboration and few amputations in communities, worldwide.”
Data presented at the symposium will be submitted for potential publication later this year in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.
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