Minister announces seed funding for venous leg ulcer registry

Minister David Davis recently announced a $30, 000 seed funding grant to Monash University School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (DEPM) to develop a pilot venous leg ulcer registry (VLUR). Dr Carolina Weller, Dr Sue Evans and Prof John McNeil will lead the project.


What are venous leg ulcers?

Venous leg ulcers (VLU) are a severe clinical manifestation of chronic venous disease which most frequently occurs in the superficial veins and presents as asymptomatic varicose veins. The progressive degenerative nature of this condition often results in vein wall weakness, producing valvular incompetence and ultimately causing active open ulcers on the lower legs.   The main treatment for VLU is a firm compression therapy to aid venous return.

Why do we need a venous leg ulcer registry?

Venous leg ulcers are a very common and costly problem in Australia.  Over 400,000 Australians suffer from VLU which translated into costs of over $2 billion per year.

The assessment and management of VLUs vary, with delayed diagnosis, overuse of antibiotics and insufficient or inadequate use of compression therapy. The information on the VLUR will provide clinicians and researchers with an important resource for investigating treatments and clinical outcomes. The registry will provide monitoring and benchmark data to improve quality of life and reduce costs and is an important first step to ensure that all patients with venous leg ulcers will receive the best possible care.

Why are Monash involved?

Monash University’s DEPM is Australia’s leading institution for clinical registries and has the required infrastructure and expertise in public health, epidemiology, biostatistics and management of large data bases of confidential information.