Americans know very little about vascular health, prompting surgeons to speak out
Many Americans have never heard of peripheral artery disease (PAD), carotid artery disease or other common vascular conditions, according to a new survey from the Society of Vascular Surgery (SVS). In fact, a vast majority said they are unsure what vascular surgeons do.
The survey included feedback from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults. While 29% respondents said they have never heard of PAD or any major vascular disease, just 46% said they would want to see a vascular surgeon for symptoms such as leg swelling or difficulty with walking. In addition, 85% said they were unfamiliar with the role vascular surgeons play in our healthcare system.
SVS aims to reverse these trends with a new three-year patient education campaign, Highway to Health. The group wants to improve the general public’s understanding of a wide variety of topics, including PAD, vascular surgery, the long-term risks of tobacco use and more.
By getting more high-risk patients to engage with vascular specialists, SVS believes it can help limit heart attacks, strokes and other adverse health consequences associated with PAD and the other potentially fatal diseases that target the blood vessels.
"Surgery is only part of the story for vascular surgeons—a significant amount of the care we provide is dedicated to prevention, screening, and ongoing medication management of vascular diseases,” SVS President Matthew Eagleton, MD, chief of vascular and endovascular surgery with Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a statement. “We encourage the millions of people in the U.S. who are at the highest risk for vascular disease to talk with their doctor and ask if seeing a vascular surgeon is right for them.”
“My guiding mission as a vascular surgeon is to improve the quality of life for my patients with the highest quality, expert care,” added William Shutze, MD, a vascular surgeon with Texas Vascular Associates and SVS secretary. “You see vascular surgeons in lots of different settings from the emergency room trauma center to helping patients prevent vascular disease at every age. We are on the front lines of treating patients with a wide array of vascular conditions, from prevention and screening to medical management and surgery—we are here to care of patients across the continuum.”
Click here for additional content from the SVS Highway to Health program.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.