The Venous Forum of The Royal Society of Medicine, is the UK's national meeting for vein surgery and venous conditions. The Annual Meeting is held in London in April each year.

This year, The Whiteley Clinic research team had a particularly successful meeting, building on the Poster Prize that they won last year at the same meeting. Salil Patel, a medical student who came to work at The Whiteley Clinic for his summer holiday in summer 2013, won the first Prize for his research into Foam Sclerotherapy, supervised by Professor Mark Whiteley.

Salil's research showed the effects of temperature, altitude, volume, gas and different syringe types on the formation of foam for Foam Sclerotherapy. This research h as already been implemented into The Whiteley Protocol® , making sure that all The Whiteley Clinic patients get the very latest and best vein treatments possible.

At the same meeting, Chris Lee, PhD student at The Whiteley Clinic and University of Surrey, presented his research looking at how sclerotherapy works in varicose veins, using a technique called immunocytochemistry. By using this antibody technique, Chris has been able to track how the sclerotherapy works in the laboratory - this has given us huge insights into how to improve vein treatments further.

Jade Davidson, reflexologist at Rosey Feet, came along to present the results of her randomised controlled trial. This study showed that using hand reflexology on patients whilst they underwent local anaesthetic varicose veins treatments, significantly reduced anxiety in patients having the treatment.

Finally Professor Whiteley gave one lecture on the future of varicose vein surgery in the UK in the private sector. as the NHS and private medical insurers seem to be withdrawing from funding venous disease and then took part in a debate on local anaesthetic varicose vein surgery.