New Guidelines Point to Better Care for Patients with Venous Thromboembolism
New long-awaited guidelines on the treatment of venous thromboembolism will help doctors individualize VTE care.
Since 2015, the American Society of Hematology has been working on a report that promises to provide a breakthrough in venous thromboembolism (VTE) treatment — and now, the long-awaited report has been finalized. While VTE care has lacked clear and consistent standards for years, resulting in widely diverse approaches to prevention, diagnosis and treatment across the industry, the new report promises to offer standardized guidelines that will vastly improve care.
To create the report, the ASH brought together 100+ professionals, including hematologists, guideline development experts, and patient advocates, for three years of consultation and collaboration on VTE care. The resulting findings will allow vein care professionals to better personalize care and more thoroughly consider patients’ individual health needs. VTE affects up to 900,000 Americans and causes up to 100,000 deaths per year in the United States alone, making these guidelines an incredibly important public health development.
How the New Guidelines Will Lead to Better VTE Care
While a wide range of patients can be affected by VTE, including otherwise healthy people, certain populations are known to be at greater risk. The ASH report establishes best practices for a number of these relevant patient groups, including children, pregnant women, at-risk patients taking long flights, cancer patients, and those with thrombophilia, an abnormality that makes clotting more likely.
With these new guidelines, doctors will have a targeted understanding of their patients’ needs and risk factors, which can help facilitate more effective and efficient diagnosis and care. Further, the report offers guidelines for increasing patient safety, suggesting cutting down on unnecessary radiation exposure by forgoing lung CT scans in most cases and recommending prophylaxis treatment over blood-thinning medication in patients with high bleeding risk.
The report also suggests introducing more dedicated anticoagulation therapy centers, which are not currently common. This exciting proposal may indicate an increase in infrastructure and technology specifically dedicated to the treatment of VTE in the future, but patients will experience the benefits of these new guidelines in their usual treatment center, as well.
If you have VTE, or believe yourself to be at risk due to other concerns about your vein health, consider getting in touch with our clinic. The experts at the Center for Vein Restoration offer proven techniques for improving vein health, and are continually providing the latest evidence-based practices for our patients.
CVR can provide treatment for any vein condition that is negatively affecting your quality of life or putting your health at risk. Schedule a consultation today.