Our 'why' is "to help those who are underrepresented, underrecognized, and undertreated in our community."

Because critical limb ischemia (CLI) has many complexities and nuances, it is essential to work together to develop effective treatment strategies.

The fight against CLI continues at the 2024 Amputation Prevention Symposium (AMP), to be held August 14-17 in Chicago. AMP brings together a diverse group of vascular and endovascular specialists for the latest advances in revascularization and groundbreaking techniques that will improve the future for all CLI patients.

My focus is on patients who are both vulnerable to cancer and vascular disease. Often, patients’ cancer therapies exacerbate their vascular disease, or their vascular disease prohibits them from continuing their cancer therapy. I stand in the gap to try to facilitate their cancer therapy by maintaining their performance status and quality of life and improving their chronic limb-threatening ischemia.

At AMP, participants learn practical ways of treating their patients and a true sense of the why: to help those who are underrepresented, underrecognized, and undertreated in our community, who suffer severe comorbidities and have a high mortality.

Faculty at AMP are clinicians who are nationally and internationally known for their work, active in research and teaching, but are also very clinically focused. Every day they are caring for the patients they lecture attendees about, using the very methods and techniques in their own practice that they are lecturing about.

My sessions at AMP will include:

• What is the Goal of CLI Therapy? Arterial Patency vs Wound Healing vs Limb Salvage: Wednesday, August 14, 2024, 9:26-9:34 AM
• Session 7: Multidisciplinary Approach for Optimal Management of the CLI Patient (Developed in partnership with the Society for Vascular Medicine): Thursday, August 15, 2024, 3:00-4:30 PM
• Panel Discussion: Thursday, August 15, 2024, 4:10-4:30 PM

At AMP, clinicians who are trying to move the needle for their patients with CLI will find the direction and techniques they need to do so. They will find a forum where open dialogue is welcomed, where improving patient outcomes is a priority. It is powerful to see local and international colleagues tackling CLI in their various demographics, resources, and capabilities.

I hope you will join me at AMP 2024. To view the full educational program and to register, visit: amptheclimeeting.com.

Yolanda Bryce, MD, RPVI is a faculty member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and is the founding director of MSKCC’s Noninvasive Vascular Imaging Center. She started the institution's PAD program, improving mobility and quality of life of some of the most vulnerable patients – those with both cancer and life-limiting PAD.