Progressing Venous, Lymphatic Medicine through CERTIFICATION By Dr. Neil Khilnani, ABVLM President
The American Board of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine (ABVLM) is a multi-disciplinary Board with a tripartite mission. The first is to create benchmarks for cognitive knowledge, experience, and continuous learning in venous and lymphatic diseases to allow practicing physicians to demonstrate their expertise. The second is to improve the level of graduate medical education in all relevant disciplines to ensure these venous specialists are properly and thoroughly prepared to provide safe and effective care. As part of this mission, the Board supports the creation of Venous and Lymphatic Fellowships programs. Ultimately, the Board seeks formal recognition of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine as a subspecialty of various primary disciplines that are engaged in the care of these patients. In the last year, we have continued to make strides related to these missions.
ABVLM CERTIFICATION: The number of diplomates having achieved certification now exceeds 850 • We anticipate having more than 1,000 diplomates in the next 3-4 years • Congratulations to the Class of 2019
ONGOING LEARN ASSESSMENT: The Ongoing Learning Assessment (OLA) program has been a tremendous success. Nearly all of our Diplomates regularly participate in the monthly OLA program, which is required to maintain certification. The consensus amongst users is the quality of the questions and the educational content provided to support the
correct response are at an extremely high level. On a personal note, I find ABVLM program questions educational and challenging, much more so than those I complete for my primary specialty MOC. For someone who has unending amounts of work, I look forward to completing my ABVLM OLA each month as I learn something from nearly every item.
IAC-VEIN CENTER RECOGNITION OF ABVLM CERTIFICATION: The Intersocietal Accreditation Commission Vein Center Board recently approved a pathway for physicians to demonstrate knowledge and experience to qualify as a medical director or medical staff physician of an accredited Vein Center using their ABVLM certification. The final standards will be published in the next few weeks with the details related to this.
GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION: There are now five ABVLM-accredited Fellowship Programs, incorporating ten fellowship slots. The newest fellowship will be at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The program is co-hosted through the Vascular Surgery and Interventional Radiology Departments at Harvard Medical School with Dr. Julianne Stoughton as the Program Director. Previously approved VLM Fellowships exist, in alphabetical order, at the Centers for Vein Restoration (Dr. Peter Pappas, Program Director), Jobst Vascular Institute (Dr. John Fish III, Program Director), Center for Venous and Lymphatic Medicine at Prisma Health (Dr. Marcus Stanbro, Program Director) and Stony Brook University, (Dr. Antonios Gasparis, Program 18
