NBCA’s prestigious Medical and Scientific Advisory Board (MASAB) met in San Francisco on December 7 to discuss projects for 2009, led by Jack Ansell MD, MASAB Chair. MASAB voted to recommend expansion of NBCA’s outreach to patients with atrial fibrillation (a fib). Up to now, a fib patients were not considered part of NBCA’s constituency because a fib-related clotting occurs in the arteries, not the veins. However, there is an overriding commonality with venous clots and our current patient constituency, as all face the challenge of life with anticoagulants, an important consideration for the NBCA Board when it weighs the merits of MASAB’s recommendation.
NBCA President, Randy Fenninger provided an update on NBCA, and Hani Atrash MD gave one on Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Ken Bauer MD led and presented the “How We Treat” series, distributed his work in progress on VTE, and inspired members to produce certain topics following the How We Treat templates for healthcare providers and patients. He also recruited two MASAB members to review his work. The project will be re-evaluated after a few titles are produced. Mary Ellen McCann distributed the NBCA Bookmark and Stoplight references on DVT Signs/Symptoms and Risks for review, as well as Baxter Webb’s (Proventys) research on clotting risk in cancer.
I presented some concepts and ideas to MASAB about creating a national thrombosis research agenda and factors to consider for funding grantees, when resources permit. Lastly, MASAB endorsed and complimented NBCA’s role in implementing a number activities supporting the Surgeon General’s Call to Action. At Jack Ansell’s urging, Randy Fenninger gave an overview of the political spectrum for healthcare with the new Congress and the Obama administration. June 2007 MASAB minutes are available from Mary Ellen McCann (mmccann@stoptheclot.org ) and the December ‘08 minutes will be available by the end of February.
