Nathan Connell: Faster Diagnosis of von Willebrand Disease Through Multidisciplinary Care
Nathan Connell, Clinical Chief of Hematology at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, shared a post on Linkedln:
“At the WFH Congress 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, I had the opportunity to discuss how multidisciplinary management can lead to a more timely and accurate diagnosis of von Willebrand disease.
For too many individuals with VWD, particularly women and girls, diagnostic delay is measured in years, not months.
Heavy menstrual bleeding, recurrent epistaxis, easy bruising, iron deficiency, and post-procedural bleeding are often seen across different clinical settings without being connected into a unified bleeding history.
That delay is not inevitable. It is a systems problem, and it should be treated as a quality – improvement target.
A multidisciplinary approach can shorten the path to diagnosis by creating shared diagnostic pathways across primary care, adolescent medicine, gynecology, ENT, hematology, nursing, social work, and physical therapy.
Each discipline has an opportunity to recognize bleeding symptoms, standardize history – taking, coordinate appropriate laboratory testing, and ensure timely referral.
The goal is not simply faster diagnosis.
It is a more accurate diagnosis, better subtype classification, safer procedural and pregnancy planning, improved treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding and iron deficiency, and fewer missed opportunities for patients and families.
If heavy menstrual bleeding is treated as a hemostatic symptom until proven otherwise, diagnostic delay becomes preventable.
Grateful to the World Federation of Hemophilia for the opportunity to contribute to this important conversation.”
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