We need your help to update our clinic locations listing! This extensive clinic listing on our website is a critical resource. Please take a minute to check if your clinic is listed and confirm that the information is correct and complete. If not, please email updates and corrections to info@acforum.org.

While you're there, please also confirm your own contact information by entering your name on the "Change your information" page. You can then submit a request to update your information. We hope to have our membership database and clinic locations as up-to-date as possible by the end of 2011 and appreciate your help in reaching this goal! 

 

Bridging Anticoagulation in Patients who Require Temporary Interruption of Warfarin Therapy for an Elective Invasive Procedure or Surgery (BRIDGE) is a phase III study that is sponsored by National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood. The study objectives are:

 

1) To compare the efficacy of bridging anticoagulation (therapeutic-dose LMWH) with no bridging anticoagulation (placebo) on the rate of ATE in patients with atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter who require temporary interruption of warfarin

 

2) To compare the safety of bridging anticoagulation with no bridging anticoagulation on the rate of major bleeding in patients who require temporary interruption of warfarin.

 

Enrollment opened in July 2009 and we are currently working with 55 sites in North America. We are looking for sites that manage patient coumadin and have access to perioperative clinic areas for this population and can enroll a minimum of 1-2 patients per month, which is critical for us to meet the study goal of 3,626 by the end of March 2015.

 

If you are interested in participating as a site, go to the BRIDGE Study public website to complete the site demographic questionnaire ASAP. Once you have completed the questionnaire, your responses will be assessed for appropriate patient population and site enrollment projections.  

 

The site demographic questionnaire may time-out after about 30 minutes of inactivity, so if you start entering your responses and are delayed for more than 30 minutes before completing it, you may lose any information entered. Do not use the "Enter" key when filling out the survey. If you do, the survey will inadvertently be submitted before you may have completed it. Once submitted, nothing further can be added. If, after clicking on the link, you are unable to open the survey, you may try to copy and paste the link into your web browser. If this does not solve the problem, please contact Steve Berry (919-668-5990) or Lisa Davis (919-668-8165) for assistance.

 

New Foundation Advances Correct Diagnosis, Optimal Treatment of Women & Girls with Blood Disorders

 

2 Inaugural Events Planned to Launch First-of-its-kind

Provider Education Initiative

 

The new 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Foundation for Women & Girls with Blood Disorders (FWGBD), was created in 2010 to ensure correct diagnosis and optimal treatment and management of women and adolescent girls with blood disorders at every life stage. Leading experts in the areas of blood disorders and women's health founded FWGBD with plans to achieve its objective, "Educating providers, Changing lives," through a multi-faceted program of healthcare provider education across specialties.

 

"Women and girls with blood disorders face unique issues and medical consequences at different stages of life, and we started this innovative organization to address an unmet need for an education resource base in these important areas," said Andra James, MD, MPH, an Ob-Gyn who is one of the founders and current President of the FWGBD and founder of the Women's Hemostasis and Thrombosis Clinic at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. "These issues often get buried and fragmented in various sources. The purpose of the Foundation is to create a single site and source where physicians and healthcare providers can go to obtain information."

 

You can now go to a preview website, www.fwgbd.org, to sign up for news and information and to reserve your place for two inaugural events:

• A December 1 webinar, Women and Bleeding Disorders, will mark the official launch of the Foundation and its full website. The medical expert-led webinar will provide hematologic, obstetric and gynecologic perspectives on this topic.  
• A Satellite Symposium will be held on December 9, preceding the 53rd ASH (American Society of Hematology) Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, on the topic of Gynecologic Challenges for Hematologists: Tools for Optimal Management of Women and Adolescent Girls with Blood Disorders. Dr. Andra James will present the segment on "Contraception for women with a history of thrombosis."

Both of these education programs are CME-accredited and jointly sponsored by Duke University School of Medicine and the FWGBD.

The FWGBD will focus on raising awareness and understanding for providers who treat blood disorders such as, von Willebrand disease (VWD), other factor deficiencies, hemoglobinopathies, thrombophilia, sickle cell disease (SCD), immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and anemias.

 

"We believe that educating key healthcare providers on the challenges women with blood disorders face during each stage of their lives will improve health outcomes for these patients," said Barbara Konkle, MD, President-elect of the FWGBD, Director of Translational Research at the Puget Sound Blood Center and Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology at the University of Washington.  "We are also committed to translating information and research to ensure that only accurate medical information is used to educate providers and benefit women and adolescent girls with blood disorders."

 

In addition to the experts who are its founding board members, the FWGBD has assembled a Medical Advisory Committee of 20 specialists, researchers and educators who are at the top of their respective fields in hematology, thrombosis, sickle cell, obstetrics/gynecology, genetic counseling and emergency medicine.  Over the next year, the FWGBD will host symposia and maintain interactive exhibit booths at the meetings of such medical societies as the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (NASPAG), the American Society for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM). With the Anticoagulation Forum and six additional partners, FWGBD is collaborating on the planning and implementation of the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Summit of North America, May 2012.

 

The Foundation will continue to present CME- and CEU-accredited webinars hosted by leaders in hematology and other fields that treat blood disorders.  A second live webinar on the topic of thromboembolism in pregnancy is scheduled for the first quarter of 2012.  Each webinar will be archived after launch and remain accessible to providers for education and CME credits beyond the live webcast.

 

"We are excited about launching this Foundation that will focus on preventing the serious consequences across the whole spectrum of blood disorders affecting women and girls," said Roshni Kulkarni, MD, Founding Board Member, Professor and Division Director of Pediatric and Adolescent Hematology/Oncology at Michigan State University and former Director of the CDC Division of Blood Disorders.

 

When the full state-of-the-art website is launched by December 1, again at www.fwgbd.org, the Foundation will offer information for healthcare providers, including cutting-edge articles and a professional exchange forum.  In addition, an Ask the Expert section will allow healthcare providers to ask specific questions to the FWGBD experts.

 

"We respect other societies and foundations that are involved with blood disorders and we plan to work with them by having a link to them and inviting them to join us as liaisons and partners," said Lanetta Jordan, MD, MPH, MSPH, Vice President of the FWGBD, Director of the Department of Sickle Cell Services at Florida Memorial Regional Hospital and Chief Medical Officer for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America. "At the same time, having our own Foundation will lend credibility to women's issues - to women's blood disorders - and to the women and girls they affect, and their healthcare providers." 

 

As part of an initiative to raise awareness and understanding of Atrial Fibrillation, Janssen Pharmaceuticals is trying to identify current AF patients to share stories about their condition. If you have patients who might be interested in participating, please have them call 1-888-328-3820 to submit their names.