Emergency physician Kathleen J. Clem, MD, FACEP, is a firm believer in asking for help every now and then when it comes to patient care. That’s why she’s so proud of the recent Bristol-Meyers Squibb/Pfizer Alliance collaborative effort to improve care for patients with Venous Thromboembolism. VTE, she said, is a big problem in rural areas, and to increase awareness, improve treatment options, and ultimately save lives, it takes a village.

“I know the public is fearful of Big Pharma and its influence on physicians in how they prescribe and care for their patients,” Dr. Clem said. “This was not the case in this project. The focus was on our patients and how to get the care they need—particularly in underserved areas. And it was under the big umbrella of expert emergency physicians providing the guidance.”

The competitive grant program, “Improving the Outpatient Management of Emergency Department Patients with Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) in Rural Areas and Underserved Communities,” launched last summer and asked for projects that promote the safe outpatient management of patients diagnosed with VTE. Applicants were asked to submit projects focused on clinical program development that overcome barriers to safe and evidence-based management, disposition, and follow up of this patient population.

The three chosen institutions—Corewell Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences—are asked to describe the proposed clinical initiative’s efficacy with outcome measures that demonstrate improved outpatient management of VTE patients, patient safety, physician satisfaction, and/or patient satisfaction.

Dr. Clem led a review board to choose the funded projects.

She said this project is crucial because of the growing challenges of patient care in certain areas of the country, and it’s not exclusively in rural settings. Although the grant project is focused on those areas, patients and physicians everywhere will benefit.

“I don’t think we have access to the testing that we need in real time across the entire country,” she said. “Having a better understanding of why it matters will increase the accessibility and timeliness. We need a timely diagnosis of the patient to determine if the clot is there or not at all. And if they have one, is it progressing? And is it something we need to be even more concerned about? It’s also crucial to get the patient into follow-up for someone who understands venous thromboembolism disease. Access is a challenge and timely follow up is difficult, even in places with high population density. More places have these challenges than ones who don’t.”