The Vascular Birthmarks Foundation
Dr. Linda Rozell-Shannon, PhD President and Founder
Dr. Linda Rozell-Shannon, PhD President and Founder
The 2019 VBF iTEAM (international) Conference was held on June 7-8, 2019 in Athens, Greece. VBF, along with the EVA (European Vascular Anomalies) Clinic of Athens, joined forces to co-sponsor the 2019 VBF iTEAM team conference. Dr. Linda Rozell-Shannon, PhD, VBF President/Founder along with Dr. Stavros Tombris, EVA Clinic Director, co-chaired the conference.
The focus of every VBF iTeam conference is to educate physicians from around the world regarding the latest information for accurately and appropriately diagnosing vascular birthmarks and anomalies in infants, children and adults. This conference was no exception. Over 80 physicians were in attendance in Athens to learn from the elite VBF iTeam. Talks included the histopathology of vascular anomalies, genetics, classification, laser, psychosocial, radiology, surgery and staging systems.
In addition to these high tech talks, there was a free diagnostic clinic in which 36 patients were seen by the top vascular anomalies experts, and there were 32 free laser therapy sessions where patients ranged in age from infancy through adulthood. VBF is thankful to Candela, Dr. Roy Geronemus, and Dr. Stuart Nelson for making possible the free laser treatments.
To top off the spectacular conference, VBF hosted the first ever Think Tank Session, facilitated by Dr. Linda, PhD, in which all attending physicians collaborated in a brainstorming session to identify key facts about vascular anomalies and to propose collaborative research projects.
After the conference, a parent shared how this conference affected their lives:
“Dear Dr. Linda, For you, I believe, it was another undertaking, while for us it was ‘flight to the moon’. Unfortunately, since our daughter was born 7 years ago , we roam in the dark of uninterested and inept physicians without any empathy or desire to help. The consultations that you enabled gave us a different perspective, a different view of the situation and hope that it will be better. You said : ‘I pray that VBF will make a positive difference in your life.’ It does!!! It makes a difference! We truly thank you!”
In order to protect the privacy of our patients, we only share patient photos when expressly granted permission to do so.
