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The Vasculitis Foundation (VF) is pleased to announce an exciting new initiative: Vasculitis-Building Outcomes, Leading Discoveries (V-BOLD), which combines three of the VF’s most critical programs: Fellowships, Vasculitis Centers, and Research. “The VF continues to transform the landscape for patients with vasculitis and providers taking care of them,” said Anisha B. Dua, MD, MPH, Director of the Northwestern Vasculitis Center. “This multifaceted and collaborative approach will move the needle in advancing our understanding and management of vasculitis.”
The first of the three arms of this initiative is the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC)-VF Fellowship. It’s a mentored training program of up to two years for physician-investigators who have a strong interest in vasculitis and wish to pursue a period of specialized training with an emphasis on clinical and/or translational patient-oriented research. Since 2005, the VCRC-VF Fellowship Program has trained 19 fellows from the US, Canada, Chile, France, Iceland and Italy.
The second arm of the initiative is Vasculitis Centers. It is only through accurate disease diagnosis and treatment that better health outcomes are achieved for patients with vasculitis. Thus, Vasculitis Centers are dedicated to improving the lives of people with vasculitis through disease management, research, and education. They provide comprehensive, high-quality, and compassionate care to patients and have the capacity to advance our understanding of vasculitis through research. With experts in the management and study of the disease, Vasculitis Centers are at the forefront of specialty care and clinical research, while treating all types of vasculitis.
The third arm of the initiative is the Vasculitis Patient-Powered Research Network (VPPRN). The VPPRN is the result of more than 10 years of productive collaboration among patients, patient advocacy organizations, clinical physicians and investigators, biomedical informaticians, qualitative and quantitative methodologists, and funding organizations. Dedicated to conducting high-quality clinical research in vasculitis, its aim is to address key, scientific and clinical issues important for both patients and their physicians.
VF board member, Don Nagle, and his wife, Cindy Stites, donated $250,000 to support the V-BOLD initiative. “The Vasculitis Foundation has been a meaningful part of our family’s lives for almost 20 years. We are very enthusiastic about the V-Bold initiative because it strategically builds on the VF’s focus on patient-centered programs with an expanded and integrated approach to research and training,” the couple said.
“Contributing to V-BOLD will ensure continued innovative educational initiatives, training support for the next generation of providers in the form of vasculitis fellowships, the development of centers of excellence that can provide coordinated, expert, subspecialty care for vasculitis patients, and support research initiatives that not only impact patient care but incorporate the patient voice through platforms such as the VPPRN,” Dr. Dua added.
The Vasculitis Foundation is the leading organization in the world dedicated to diagnosing, treating, and curing all forms of vasculitis.