Vascular Birthmarks Foundation, helping patients and families living with a vascular birthmark diagnosis

Dr. Linda Rozell-Shannon, the Founder & President of The Vascular Birthmarks Foundation (VBF), the world’s leading charitable organization dedicated to helping patients and families living with a vascular birthmark diagnosis as well as find ways to cover the cost of treatment joins eHealth Radio and the Health News & Vascular Birthmark Channels.

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Dr. Linda Rozell-Shannon discuss the following:

• What is the Vascular Birthmark Foundation?
• Why did you start it?
• What did you achieve during the Vascular Birthmark Awareness Month, which is this month?  What about the International Day of Awareness on May 15th?
• What are your goals?
• What are your biggest challenges? What is your biggest accomplishment?
• Why is it so difficult to diagnose and treat a vascular birthmark?

Linda Rozell-Shannon is the President and Founder of the Vascular Birthmarks Foundation (VBF), the leading not for profit in the world for children and adults affected by a vascular birthmark, anomaly, or syndrome.

Linda is also a Professor at Excelsior College where she teaches in the Health Sciences and Liberal Arts Programs.

VBF was founded in 1994, when Linda’s daughter Christine was born and subsequently diagnosed with a hemangioma. There was no internet at the time for every day use. There was no book on the subject for parents. Physicians were not trained in medical school to treat these lesions.

Prior to 1994, Linda had earned her BS in Business and her MS in Health Education. She worked as an Administrative/Legislative Analyst for New York State for over 25 years, retiring in 2009.

In 1980, Linda participated in the Winter Olympics as a Torch Runner through Upstate New York. She has also worked on the drafting and implementation of several pieces of legislation in New York State.

In 1997, Linda became the co-author of the only book for parents on the subject of Vascular Birthmarks, entitled: Birthmarks: A Guides to Hemangiomas and Vascular Malformations. Since then, she has authored or co-authored over 12 medical journals, 3 text book chapters, and has presented at over 20 conferences worldwide on the subject of vascular birthmarks.  She is an avid public speaker concerning this topic and advocates for parents and lobbies insurance companies to cover treatment.

In 2012 Linda established the VBF iTEAM, the first team of medical experts concerning vascular birthmarks assembled to lecture and train doctors all over the world to accurately diagnose and treat vascular birthmarks.

In 2014 Linda designed the first ever on-line course in vascular anomalies. The course will be launched in 2016. Physicians enrolling in the course will receive 16 CME credits. In addition, she has been working with the American Academy of Pediatrics to educate pediatricians and primary care specialists regarding vascular birthmarks.

Over $3,000,000 has been raised for VBF in the past 20 years while under the leadership of Linda Rozell-Shannon and she has established chapters on 6 of the world’s 7 continents. In 2016 the foundation reached 100,000 networked into treatment and they currently receive over 3,000,000 visits a month on their worldwide websites. 

Today, Dr. Linda (as she is referred) is considered the leading lay expert in the world concerning vascular birthmarks and anomalies.

Website: www.birthmark.org