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Las Vegas’ Desert Springs Hospital’s Diabetes Treatment Center Receives Peripheral Arterial Disease Coalition’s Annual Stay in Circulation Community Service Award

The Peripheral Arterial Disease (P.A.D.) Coalition presented its annual Stay in Circulation Community Service Award to the Diabetes Treatment Center at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada at the organization’s fifth Annual Meeting.  The Stay in Circulation Community Service Award recognizes collaborative programs focused on increasing awareness about peripheral arterial disease to high-risk populations, patients and/or the health care community.

Peripheral arterial disease occurs when arteries in the legs become narrowed or clogged

with fatty deposits, reducing blood flow to the legs.  This can result in leg muscle pain when walking, disability, amputation and a poor quality of life.  Blocked leg arteries found in people with P.A.D. can be a warning sign that other arteries, including those in the heart and brain, may also be affected—increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke. 

Desert Springs Hospital’s Diabetes Treatment Center received the P.A.D. Community Service Award for its innovative and comprehensive approach to P.A.D outreach and education through its Leg Circulation Center.   Developed in partnership with Healthways, Inc. and launched in 2007, the Leg Circulation Center has reached over 1.5 million consumers, patients and health care providers locally and nationally.   Using the P.A.D. Coalition’s educational materials and “Stay in Circulation” campaign messages, the center has raised awareness and educated the public and providers about P.A.D. through:  free ankle brachial index (ABI) screenings, partnerships with diabetes and health care professional organizations, mass media messages, retail outlet shelf talkers, health fairs, webinars and seminars, and continuing medical education programs.

 

"On behalf of the P.A.D. Coalition, we are delighted to present the second annual Community Service Award to Desert Springs Hospital," said Alan T. Hirsch, M.D., Chair of the P.A.D. Coalition, Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and Director of the Vascular Medicine Program at the Minneapolis Heart Institute.  Hirsch noted that people with diabetes have a higher risk of P.A.D. due to the macrovascular damage associated with high blood glucose. “The Leg Circulation Center, sponsored by the hospital’s Diabetes Treatment Center, is the first of its kind and is truly a model program that is not only helping to spread the word about P.A.D. but also to improve the lives of people affected by peripheral arterial disease.”

“It has been an honor and a privilege to work with the public and health care professionals to improve awareness about P.A.D.,” said Joyce Malaskovitz, RN, PhD, Director of the Desert Springs Hospital’s Diabetes Treatment Center and Leg Circulation Center.  “This collaboration has made a tremendous impact and has lead to improvements in quality of life.It truly takes a team effort to impact P.A.D.”

The Peripheral Arterial Disease (P.A.D.) Coalition is an alliance of leading health organizations, vascular health professional societies, and government agencies united to raise public and health professional awareness about lower extremity P.A.D.  Established in 2004, the PAD Coalition is coordinated by the Vascular Disease Foundation (www.vdf.org), a national, not-for-profit section 501(c)(3) organization and is supported by the following national sponsors:  the Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership; Cordis Endovascular, a division of Cordis Corporation; Abbott Vascular; AnGes, Inc.; AstraZeneca; Bard Peripheral Vascular; Baxter Healthcare; BioMedix; Cook, Inc; W.L. Gore & Associates; Medtronic; Novo Nordisk; Omron; Summit Doppler; and Vermillion.  

For more information about P.A.D., visit www.P.A.D.coalition.org.

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