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The Angiogenesis Foundation convened two advocacy summits for critical limb ischemia (CLI) in 2010. CLI is a condition characterized by chronic ischemic at-rest pain, ulcers, or gangrene in one or both legs attributable to peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and is an area of substantial unmet medical need and active research. To address this issue in two continents, the Angiogenesis Foundation brought together a multidisciplinary group of leading experts in the disease from North American and Europe in two conferences in Crystal City, Virginia (June 2010) and Berlin, Germany (October 2010), respectively.
CLI and ischemic amputation is an example of major cardiovascular health disparity, with high differentiation in patient outcomes. This is not due to genetics, but rather to the lack of a “system of care” that could provide consistent high quality. The care pathways through which PAD patients navigate, from their initial diagnosis to progression to CLI to amputation and beyond, are extremely complex.
The experts, who represented the wide range of medical and pharmacological disciplines that deal with CLI, undertook a situation analysis in their respective continents, then broke into working groups to address four major issues for the complex ideas: the obstacles and challenges for improving outcomes in CLI, generating disease awareness, establishing care pathways, and value analysis & reimbursement. From the working groups, volunteers agreed to take concrete action steps to further their work after the conference.
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Overview