OhioHealth Medical Minute: VIVA Conference

Heart and vascular disease is still the leading cause of death in the U.S., and physicians from around the world are constantly challenged with providing new ways of advancing the field of vascular medicine, improving patient care and innovating treatment methods for vascular-related illness.

Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) Physicians is one of the biggest non-profit vascular education and research companies in the world. At its annual multidisciplinary vascular education conference last month, 10 OhioHealth associates from across different departments led presentations about the latest in advanced technology, global live cases and clinical data regarding vascular health, an accomplishment almost unheard for a healthcare system.

Gary Ansel, MD, system medical chief of vascular at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, shares more about OhioHealth’s important role in the three-day event in this OhioHealth Medical Minute.

"Vascular disease is treated by multiple different specialties," said Dr. Ansel. "At OhioHealth, we've actually created a vascular institute without walls that's got all the different specialties, so we integrate that approach focused on the patient and what's best for them. It really changes things, and that’s what VIVA's really morphed into."

For patients seeking vascular care, OhioHealth is pioneering game-changing medical practices, including how we treat pulmonary embolisms, the third-highest cause of death in the U.S.

"Not having to use blood-clot dissolving medicine but actually pulling the clot out through a tube in your leg has been a game-changer because we immediately get that patient taken care of," said Dr. Ansel.

To learn more about heart and vascular services at OhioHealth, click here.