Vascular Disease Foundation honors UCSD professor with President's Award for Vision

Prestigious President's Award for Vision given annually by the Vascular Disease Foundation

The Vascular Disease Foundation has awarded Michael Criqui, MD, MPH, professor and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, one of its highest honors, the President's Award for Vision. The award was presented at the VDF's annual meeting in Alexandria, Virginia on September 20.

In bestowing the award, VDF noted Criqui's vision in recognizing the prevalence and impact of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and his pioneering epidemiologic studies that became that standard in the field. Criqui's 1992 report in the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the increased mortality risk in PAD patients, and his 2001 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) brought further attention to the prevalence of PAD.

Criqui's research created the basis for VDF to create the PAD, a group of nearly 80 major health organizations, including the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, American Pharmacists Association, American Medical Women's Association, American Society of Hematology, American Vascular Association, National Council on the Aging and Society of General Internal Medicine. Criqui has led the PAD Coalition's Science Committee for the past four years.

PAD is a blockage of the arteries, usually in the legs or other peripheral artery segments of the circulatory system In PAD, the artery wall linings slowly become narrowed and rough clots formed due to built up cholesterol or plaque. PAD is a marker for blockages in the heart and brain with potential for death from heart attack and stroke.