Measuring functional limitations after venous thromboembolism: A call to action

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Clinical Trials
• Health Outcomes

Background:

• Therapeutic trials for venous thromboembolism (VTE) primarily focus on preventing recurrent VTE, bleeding, and death.
• These traditional outcomes are infrequent and do not fully represent the functional status of VTE patients.
• Functional limitations are prevalent post-VTE, affecting up to 50% of patients and diminishing quality of life.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the urgent need for tools that capture functional outcomes in VTE clinical trials.
• To propose the development of a standardized post-VTE functional status scale.
• To encourage community action for the scale's development and implementation.

Main Methods:

• The study proposes a novel functional status scale for VTE patients.
• This scale aims to capture the full spectrum of functional outcomes, from asymptomatic to death.
• It will assess limitations in usual activities and lifestyle changes.

Main Results:

• Functional limitations significantly impact patients' quality of life, mental health, employment, and healthcare resource utilization.
• A standardized scale is anticipated to differentiate effective VTE therapies based on functional outcomes.
• The proposed scale will support value-based healthcare initiatives.

Conclusions:

• Current VTE trial outcomes do not adequately address patient functional status.
• A new functional status scale is essential for comprehensive VTE therapy evaluation.
• The VTE community is called upon to collaborate on developing and validating this crucial outcome measure.