Five years ago, the Jefferson Vascular Center (JVC)–staffed by a multi-disciplinary team of Interventional Radiology, Pulmonary Critical Care, Vascular Surgery and Vascular Medicine physicians–became a founding member of the Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) Consortium.
The PERT Consortium is a national organization that advocates a team approach to caring for patients who come into hospitals with blood clots in their lungs. Now the JVC is preparing to apply for a new national certification from the PERT Consortium as a Comprehensive PERT Center.
The Jefferson PERT team is co-led by Carin Gonsalves, MD (Interventional Radiology), Frances Mae West, MD (Pulmonary Critical Care), and Photi Galanis, MD, and Geno J. Merli, MD (Vascular Medicine).
To secure Comprehensive certification, a PERT team must meet 10 criteria. As Dr. Merli explains, Jefferson already has many of the required resources and processes in place. These include having a team skilled in interventional procedures, ensuring that echocardiography testing is available seven days a week and maintaining a research program focused on pulmonary embolism (PE). Jefferson also met the requirement to participate in the consortium’s PERT Database and is committed to capturing information on all PE patients.
Dr. Merli notes that any Comprehensive PERT Center also must offer both inpatient and outpatient care for PE patients–a capability that Jefferson has now added.
“We recently established our outpatient program in the Jefferson Vascular Center on the 9th Floor and Pulmonary Critical Care on the 17th floor of the Honickman Center,” he says. “It provides a central location and standard processes for outpatient management following discharge from the hospital.”
Every Friday on the schedule is reserved for follow-up outpatient appointments. During these visits, physicians and advanced practice clinicians answer any outstanding questions, ensure that patients have the necessary medications and are progressing as expected. The JVC team also manages any long-term anticoagulant therapies patients need.
For more information about the PERT Consortium, please visit: PERTconsortium.org
Aidoc Improves PE Diagnoses
The JVC and PERT team have also invested in innovative technology from Aidoc–a technology solution that uses automated algorithms to analyze lung scans.
Some patients seeking emergency care have pulmonary embolism (PE) symptoms, such as chest pain or shortness of breath, which may prompt a scan of the lungs. In other cases, PE is diagnosed incidentally–that is, while testing for or treating another condition. Regardless of why a scan was performed, Aidoc’s aiOS™ reviews them quickly and efficiently, accelerating the team’s ability to identify and assess PE patients.
“If Aidoc identifies a scan as positive for a pulmonary embolism, it sends a mobile alert to PERT clinicians from Vascular Medicine, Pulmonology and Interventional Radiology,” says Dr. Merli. “The team can then review the scan and quickly determine a course of action–whether that’s inserting a catheter to remove the clot or using standard medical therapy.”
For more information on the Jefferson Vascular Center, please visit Jefferson.edu/JVC
Recommended Citation
(2024)
"Jefferson Vascular Center Prepares for Comprehensive PERT Center Certification,"
Jefferson Surgical Solutions: Vol. 20:
Iss.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/jss/vol20/iss2/5
The Jefferson PERT Team leadership in the new Honickman Center: Drs. Geno Merli, Carin Gonsalves, Photi Galanis, and Frances Mae West.