New USTMA Cosortium website

The United States Thrombotic Microangiopathy (USTMA) Clinical Consortium was founded in 2014 as a grassroots movement by several hematologists to increase research efforts into these disorders. The term thrombotic microangiopathies or TMA encompasses several rare blood disease that includes congenital and immune-mediated TTP. Advances in clinical research into TTP have been hindered by the rarity of these conditions that prevents single centers from being able complete clinical research studies in a reasonable period of time.
 
The USTMA consortium was formed to address this issue and allow for increased collaborative clinical research among investigators and sites across North America.  
Since its founding, the USTMA consortium has grown to include investigators from over 15 academic centers in the United States, with these centers accounting over 80% of the United States enrollment for the recently completed Hercules Study of Caplacizumab in TTP.

Building on this success, the USTMA is preparing to launch a study to evaluate the prevalence of long-term complications in patients with a prior diagnosis of TTP. This research will also include lab-based studies to try and understand why these complications occur in TTP patients, with the hope that this information will translate into improvements in the treatment and prevention of these complications.
 
Author: Dr. Spero Cataland member of the Medical Advisory Network for Answering TTP Foundation.