Our coagulation specialist team supports two types of patients:

• Abnormal bleeding: Our specialist team at the Hemophilia Treatment Center supports patients who bleed abnormally. This is often due to inherited diseases like von Willebrand disease or hemophilia, but there are other rare disorders that can cause abnormal bleeding. Abnormal bleeding can include excessive nosebleeds or bruising, heavy menstrual periods and bleeding after surgery.
• Abnormal clotting: We treat patients who experience abnormal bleeding disorders, such as hemophilia or von Willebrand's disease, or blood clots in their veins known as venous thrombosis — which is deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). Other types of abnormal blood clots include stroke, cerebral vein thrombosis (CVT) or thrombosis of veins in other parts of the body. Patients with these disorders may be diagnosed with inherited clotting abnormalities that place them at higher risk of abnormal clotting (such as factor V Leiden or protein C deficiency), or with acquired diseases like antiphospholipid syndrome and autoimmune blood disease.

One in five patients undergoing chemotherapy will develop blood clots — venous thrombosis. At UVM Cancer Treatment Center, we screen all patients with cancer for blood clot risk before chemotherapy starts. If you are at high risk, we prescribe a blood thinner and manage your hematology care to minimize clot risk. Our physician-researchers developed a way to bring this life-saving care to our patients and were the first in the world to publish how to do this.

Our coagulation lab at University of Vermont Medical Center is one of the region's foremost resources for coagulation testing. Our state-of-the art testing enhances our ability to diagnose congenital (inherited) and acquired bleeding and clotting disorders, hypercoagulable evaluations and autoimmune coagulation disorders.

Some clotting disorders run in families. When needed, we provide genetic testing and counseling to help you understand your risk and what that means for your health and the health of family members.

The Vermont Regional Hemophilia Treatment Center (HTC), also referred to as the Vermont Regional Bleeding Disorder Center, provides compassionate care in a state-of-the-art facility. Our center is one of only 140 in the United States and is a federally designated Center for Excellence in bleeding disorders. This designation recognizes our expertise in pediatric and adult bleeding disorders and availability of patient support services.

A team of hematologists and pathologists meet weekly to discuss selected cases and consider treatment options from all angles. This team also meets quarterly with the maternal fetal medicine team to discuss care for people with blood disorders who are pregnant or planning pregnancy. Your primary hematologist will explain the team’s treatment recommendations to you, plan next steps for care and answer your questions.

Our physicians all conduct research at UVM Medical Center and University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine and with colleagues around the world. We adapt the latest medical literature to bring the most up-to-date advances to our patients. Our research includes studies on risk factors for thrombosis disorders to better understand how to prevent thrombosis, and how to help our patients be as healthy as possible after their event.

Our researchers discovered that obesity/overweight is a risk factor for venous thrombosis, which helps our team counsel patients about how to reduce their risk. Our team improved patient safety by discovering factors that lead to thrombosis as a complication of hospital stay. Mary Cushman, MD, chaired the American Society of Hematology Clinical Practice Guideline on this topic.