VDF HealthCasts Continue

The Vascular Disease Foundation is proud to continue its audio HealthCasts that cover all aspects of vascular disease. Our guests are the leading scientific and clinical experts in their respective fields.

HealthCasts are hosted by Dr. David Meyerson and produced by Dr. Kerry Stewart. Dr. Meyerson is a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins and a scientific advisor to VDF. Dr. Stewart is a Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins and a member of the VDF Board of Directors.

Here are the latest HealthCasts episodes and topics:

Episode 13: Vascular Disease and the Foot
Podiatrist Dr. Jordan Stewart, Director of the Timonium Foot and Ankle Center in Lutherville, Maryland, discusses diagnosis, signs and symptoms, treatment, and the prevention of foot problems in persons affected with vascular disease.

Episode 14: Diabetic Foot CareŃCaring for the Feet in Persons with Diabetes
Carolyn Robinson, vascular nurse practitioner at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Minneapolis, MN, discusses recognizing signs and symptoms, prevention, and treatment of foot problems in people with diabetes.

Episode 15: The Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) as the "ECG of PAD"
Alan T. Hirsch, MD, Director of the Vascular Medicine Program, Minneapolis Heart Institute, discusses the ankle-brachial index (ABI), a simple test for diagnosing PAD, and also reviews strategies for treating PAD and preventing future cardiovascular events.

Episode 16: The Critical Role of Research: Why Clinical Research Is So Important to Your Health; More about the ABI
Dr. Hirsch returns for a conversation about the value of clinical trials for providing the data that becomes the basis for medical recommendations for identifying disease risk factors, procedures for diagnosis, and treatments for prevention and disease management.

Episode 17: How We Learn about the Best Treatments: How Patients and Physicians Learn about What Treatments Are Effective
Dr. Hirsch discusses the role of clinical research trials for patients with vascular disease, with a focus on the CLEVER and CORAL clinical trials.

Episode 18: Eye Disease: A Consequence of Vascular Disease and Diabetes
Dr. Stuart Dankner, an ophthalmologist in Baltimore, MD discusses the risk factors for vascular disease, including diabetes and obesity, and how diabetes affects the eye and how to prevent or delay eye complications.

HealthCasts may be found online at www.vdf.org, iTunes, Feedburner, Yahoo, and other sites. Listening instructions and a complete description of each episode may be found on VDF's Web site. Our continued thanks go to Drs. Meyerson and Stewart for volunteering their time and energy to the creation and production of these informative HealthCasts.