Standards don't
raise themselves.
For people living with VWD, bleeding risk shifts across life stages, procedures, and the changes that fall between appointments. The standards meant to guide that care have not kept pace with its complexity. Rethink VWD brings together Canadian clinicians working towards changing that.
You do.Managed in moments, not across a lifetime
VWD is often treated as isolated bleeding events and is not managed proactively through life transitions. That gap is not inevitable. But it persists without deliberate effort to close it.
Evidence exists. Practice varies.
The evidence for proactive VWD management is well established. Adoption across Canadian centres is not. That distance is not a research problem. It is a practice problem.
Hemophilia set the benchmark for proactive management. VWD has not followed.
In hemophilia, prophylaxis is the standard. In VWD, it remains the exception. The clinical complexity is comparable. The standard of care is not.
The work is already in motion.
Three editions. Physicians, nurses, advocates, and researchers in the same room, asking the questions that have gone unanswered long enough. The work that happens here doesn't stay here.
Standards are moved by people.
These are the ones moving.
Find where your expertise belongs.
Health Economic Analysis
Clinical data alone does not change practice. This initiative builds the economic case for prophylaxis — quantifying the cost of delayed treatment in hospitalisations, bleed events, and quality of life — in a format decision-makers can act on.
Standardized Surgical Protocol
Surgical preparation for a VWD patient currently varies by centre, by clinician, and by shift. A nationally aligned protocol removes that variability. This working group is building it — with real-time dosing tools and guideline-based recommendations.
Pediatric Management Standards
A child diagnosed with VWD in one province should receive the same standard of care as one in another. Right now, that is not guaranteed. In collaboration with CPTHN, this initiative is building the guidance to make it possible — covering age-appropriate dosing, management pathways, and transition to adult care.
Right Your Story
A standard of care is only as durable as the conversation between clinician and patient. This tool adapts language and content to each patient's situation — making that conversation consistent, evidence-informed, and actionable.
Evidence To Practice Series
Standards change when clinicians share what the evidence shows and hold each other to it. This network — built on Evidence-to-Practice webinars and the Prophylaxis-in-Practice tour — keeps that conversation active across Canada.
