The Introduction to Endovascular Therapies for Peripheral and Aortic Interventions course, which is offered through Cook’s Vista® Education and Training Program, covers a wide range of topics related to the treatment of aortic aneurysms, common PAD and other vascular diseases in the periphery.
On the first day of the course, attendees have the opportunity to observe a full day of cases with Cook devices and attend a didactic dinner session with the physician instructors, who present cases and give their advice and considerations for case planning and troubleshooting.
Angela Jellison, MD, first-year vascular fellow at the University of Utah School of Medicine, recently attended an Intro to Endovascular Therapies course with physician instructors Patrick Muck, MD, Brian Kuhn, MD, and Matthew Recht, MD, at TriHealth Heart Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“Vista is a really different kind of learning, a bit more relaxed,” said Jellison after the first day of case observations. “You’re not worried about the wire or concentrating on access, so you’re actually just looking at images and seeing how the physicians formulate a plan based on their image. The pace is different, much more geared toward educating.”
Jellison found the dinner session to be especially valuable, where the instructors shared experiences from cases with complications and explained their decision-making process for how they chose to treat the patient.
“How often are people willing to be like, ‘Look at my complication and how I chose to treat this’?” said Jellison. “There’s a lot to be learned from that, and the willingness to open up your case to learners is important. People usually like to show their best angiographic result, rather than a potential error in judgment or a complication. It’s much more authentic.”
On the second day of the course, the trainees are able to get hands-on experience with Cook devices in an animal lab setting and practice techniques such as IVC filter placement and retrieval, and Zilver® PTX® deployment. They also perform tabletop deployments of Zenith devices such as Zenith Alpha™ Thoracic and Zenith Flex®.
“Seeing numerous different peripheral, venous and aortic cases being performed in the same day along with attendings to discuss decision making and thought processes is one of the most beneficial parts of this course,” said Dr. Kuhn. “Also, getting hands on experience in the pig lab with the same devices they saw utilized the day before is of great value.”
“I feel the value of the Vista course is seeing how other physicians tackle similar problems they encounter everyday in a low stress, nonjudgmental environment,” said Dr. Kuhn. “They also have the ability to ask questions they might not feel comfortable asking their own attendings. I hope they come away from the course feeling their time here was well utilized with teaching, discussion of cases and the good sense of teamwork we promote.”
Sign up for Vista training
Interested in an Intro to Endovascular Therapies course or another aortic offering? View our full course catalog.
Congratulations to the trainees who completed the Intro to Endovascular Therapies course in April 2016. Pictured from left to right: Nikolas Karagiorgos, MD, second-year vascular surgery fellow at Albany Medical Center, Angela Jellison, MD, first-year vascular surgery fellow at University of Utah School of Medicine, physician instructors Matthew Recht, MD, Brian Kuhn, MD, and Patrick Muck, MD, Nikolas Zacharias, MD, second-year vascular surgery fellow at Albany Medical Center and Motahar Hosseini, MD, third-year general surgery resident at St. Agnes Hospital.
Physician instructors Patrick Muck, MD, Brian Kuhn, MD, and Matthew Recht, MD, are paid consultants of Cook Medical. Fellow and resident course attendees are not.