Newswise — (New Orleans, LA) Over 200 scientific abstracts were approved for presentation at the AANEM 2016 Annual Meeting held in New Orleans, LA, September 14-17, 2016. The AANEM Program Committee chose one outstanding abstract out of the hundreds to be honored with the Best Abstract Award.
The recipient of the 2016 Best Abstract Award is Todd Levine, MD, for the abstract, “Response to Intravenous Immunoglobulin in Patients with Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy: The Insights Quality Improvement Project”.
“This QA/QI project has been a massive undertaking over the past four years by all of the authors involved and with the help of Nufactor Specialty Pharmacy,” said Dr. Levine. “This is the largest collection of data on patients with immune mediated neuropathies ever collected and has given tremendous insight into the practice by neurologists all across the country who are treating immune mediated neuropathies. This award is extremely gratifying and helps validate the work that we have been conducting and gives us the motivation to move forward and to design a system to improve upon the current diagnostic process in the community.” The key findings of interest from the research: This study shows that there is a great deal of confusion surrounding the appropriate diagnosis of immune mediated neuropathies. Much of this resulted from not relying on EFNS/PNS electrodiagnostic criteria and not recognizing the clinical patterns related to immune mediated neuropathies. This misdiagnosis led to an over treatment of patients with IVIG. This results in suboptimal patient care and a health-ecomonic burden that could be improved upon with better diagnostic criteria. Why do you choose to submit research to the AANEM meeting? The AANEM is the premier organization of physicians interested in electrodiagnosis and therapy of neuropathies in general and in particular immune mediated neuropathies. Presenting our results at the AANEM allows us access to the physicians involved in treating these patients. Best Abstracts Runners-Up
The runners-up for Best Abstract are Kenneth Gorson, MD, for the abstract, “Challenges in the Diagnosis of Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy: A Review of Patients Treated with Intravenous Immunoglobulin From a Specialty Pharmacy Database”, and Gary Gallagher, MD, for the abstract “The Safety of Nerve Conduction Studies in Patients with Central Lines”.
About AANEMFounded in 1953, the AANEM is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to the advancement of neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, and electrodiagnostic medicine. Nearly 5000 physician members—primarily neurologists and physiatrists—are now joined by allied health professionals and PhD researchers working to improve the quality of medical care provided to patients with muscle and nerve disorders. AANEM programs are guided by its five pillars: education, professional standards, advocacy, communications, and research. Its administrative office is located in Rochester, MN. More information about AANEM Achievement Awards and Dr. Phillip’s credentials is available at http://www.aanem.org/Membership/Member-Portal/Achievement-Awards/Current-Award-Recipients
### END ###Media Contact: Laurie MonaAANEM Communications Manager 507.288.0100[email protected]
RSS