ilegx 2009 team award winner
An interdisciplinary team from St George's Hospital, London, UK, was announced as the winner of the best interdisciplinary team award at ilegx on Tuesday 13 October 2009. They received € 1000 supported by a Cordis educational grant. Peter Holt, Keith Jones, Peter Gogalniceau, who are all vascular surgeons; Marcus Simmgen, a diabetologist; and Mark Greenhill, a podiatrist, comprised the award-winning team.
The judges of the award felt that, as a regional vascular surgical hub taking referrals from the whole of southwest London, the team at St George's Hospital are a leading example of effective interdisciplinary teamworking.
The team described how they changed the patient care system in the hospital to reach the goals of the St Vincent Declaration, which aimed to reduce the international amputation rate by around 50% over a five-year period. The team began their initiative to reduce the high amputation rate in southwest London through the implementation of a limb salvage service within a multidisciplinary framework. Prior to this, the majority of patients with diabetic foot or critical limb ischaemia were offered angioplasty followed by amputation if healing was unsuccessful. The rates of surgical revascularisation were very low. Furthermore, there was no collaboration between podiatrists, orthopaedic foot specialists, microbiologists and diabetologists, and no clear patient treatment pathway through the hospital. No targets were in place and there was no system for benchmarking the outcomes of the management of the diabetic foot.
Processes were put in place so that every patient with diabetes and critical limb ischaemia would be discussed in a joint forum including microbiologists, diabetologists, orthopaedic foot specialists, podiatrists, tissue viability nurses, vascular technologists, interventional radiologists, plastic surgeons and vascular surgeons.
Every diabetic foot referred to the vascular team is now examined within four hours of referral in daylight hours, and at the start of the working day for out-of-hours referrals. Treatment pathways for these patients are expedited where patients are identified as having a limb at risk.
The new system has been in place for one year and there has been a huge increase in referrals from all specialities, an increase in the number of peripheral bypass procedures performed, and a decrease in the number of major amputations performed, despite the increase in the number of referrals.
The major learning point is that to effectively manage the diabetic foot needs a change in the traditional attitudes is needed. Aggressive, early management of diabetic foot complications under the auspices of an interdisciplinary team approach can lead to improvements in limb salvage rates. Attention to detail and a will to reduce amputation rates are key.
WHAT IS THE AWARD?The ilegx Interdisciplinary Team Award has been created to recognise outstanding contributions by a team of multidisciplinary specialists dedicated to improving the way in which leg/foot tissue loss is diagnosed and treated. The award will be launched at the 2010 ilegx meeting in London, UK with a prize of 1000 Euros presented to the winning team.
The winning team will also be featured in the November issue of Vascular News which is distributed amongst 16000 vascular specialists across Europe and North America. Other teams who are judged to have innovative ideas on patient care through an interdisciplinary collaboration will also have the opportunity to feature in this issue of Vascular News.WHO CAN BE NOMINATED?
Nominees must be teams of specialists working in an interdisciplinary collaboration involved in treating patients with leg/foot tissue loss. Nomination of candidates for the Interdisciplinary Team Award may be made by any administrative head, faculty, or staff member. Submitting teams must register for the ilegx symposium and are eligible for half price registration fees. SELECTION PROCEDURE
The ilegx programme directors will review all nominations and announce the winning team during the ilegx annual meeting in Imperial College, London, UK 16 - 17 October 2010.
The selection will be made based on the following criteria:
- interdisciplinary team collaboration
- Dedication to patient satisfaction/healing rates/amputation avoidance
Nominations for the team award must be submitted by Friday, September 25th 2010. At least two representatives from each nominated team must be registered to attend the 2010 ilegx initiative in Imperial College, London, UK 16 - 17 October 2010.HOW TO SUBMIT NOMINATIONS
Step One: Register for ilegx with half price rates Here
Step Two: Then complete the Nomination form below
Please contact the ilegx event team on +44 (0) 20 7736 8788 if you have any questions regarding the team award.
