March 6, 2008
UW to host deep vein thrombosis awareness event March 12
The UW, in collaboration with the Coalition to Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), will host a DVT awareness event featuring remarks by the Coalitions’s national patient spokesperson Melanie Bloom and UW vascular disease experts. The event takes place Wednesday, March 12, 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in the lobby of the Health Sciences building, 1959 NE Pacific St.
Bloom is the widow of former NBC News correspondent David Bloom, who died suddenly at age 39 from complications from deep vein thrombosis while covering the Iraq war in April 2003. Since her husband’s untimely death, Bloom has become an advocate for raising awareness about DVT, a commonly occurring medical condition with a potentially fatal complication known as pulmonary embolism (PE).
In addition, the event will focus on educational interventions for providers and patients at UW Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center, and will include a presentation of the Web-based VTE Safety Toolkit for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), a disease that includes DVT and PE. The toolkit was developed by an interprofessional team of UW researchers and clinicians, led by the School of Nursing’s Brenda Zierler, PhD, RN, and the Center for Clinical Excellence’s Gene Peterson, MD, PhD, as part of a Partnerships in Patient Safety study funded by the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (See http://vte.washington.edu/ ).
This year marks the fifth consecutive year that the Coalition will dedicate March as “DVT Awareness Month.” The Coalition is composed of more than 50 members from nationally known medical societies, patient advocacy groups and other public health organizations devoted to raising awareness about DVT among consumers, healthcare professionals, government and public health leaders. In addition, Governor Christine Gregoire has proclaimed March to be DVT Prevention month in Washington in honor of the late Senator Jennifer Dunn. Her son, King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, will also be present at the March 12th event.
Up to two million Americans are affected annually by DVT, and approximately 300,000 die each year from PE, the majority of which result from DVT.
