The following story originally appeared in the June 2018 edition of the Vanderbilt Radiology alumni newsletter, the Reader.
Not long after I completed my fellowship in interventional radiology (IR), a new technique for treatment of severe venous insufficiency called endovenous laser ablation was developed by an interventional radiologist in New York. This new procedure was quickly shown to produce better outcomes than the traditional surgical approach with saphenous vein ligation and stripping. The fact that an interventional radiologist pioneered this approach opened the door for the IR community to begin to see and treat patients who were suffering from varicose veins.
Drs. Steve Meranze and Peter Bream had the foresight to suggest that we develop this service line at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), and I was fortunate enough to be chosen to lead this endeavor. With the support of the department, I trained myself to perform laser ablation as well as several other procedures that are necessary to fully treat patients with venous disease.
When Vanderbilt Imaging Services (VIS) opened our outpatient location at One Hundred Oaks (OHO), I was given a small procedure room and one day a week to begin treating patients with venous insufficiency. At first, I only saw one or two patients a week, but the practice grew steadily, and I now see vein patients all day three days a week. Last year we performed over 100 laser procedures at OHO and saw almost 1,000 patients in clinic.
As a result of this success, I was asked to move the vein practice into cardiology. The goals of this collaboration are to build a bridge between interventional cardiology, vascular medicine and vascular surgery and to make the vein clinic a more visible part of the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute. After much work by members of the administration and IT staff in both radiology and cardiology, the move was completed in early April of this year. I was given the title of Radiology Director of the Vanderbilt Vein Center and became the first physician from outside cardiology to have a director role within their department.
Our new space in the Cardiology Clinic at OHO is larger and will allow us to continue to expand this service, and hopefully will result in much stronger multidisciplinary care of patients with severe venous disease. The procedures performed in this clinic are often life changing for patients, and I am very excited to be able to see more patients and provide even more comprehensive care for them. None of this would have been possible without the support of my IR colleagues and the leadership in the Department of Radiology, and I am extremely grateful to be part of this team.
