PAD Walking Before AND After a Stent? | Dr. Jonathan Myers & PREPARE-IT

It is my honor to recognize Dr. Jonathan Myers, PhD and the PREPARE-IT research team with the 2026 Best Walking Initiative of the Year Award through the patient-nominated Global PAD Impact Awards.

Dr. Myers, Director of Cardiopulmonary Research at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Clinical Professor at Stanford University, is the principal investigator of PREPARE-IT: Prehabilitation and Rehabilitation in PAD, a randomized trial studying exercise therapy and cardiovascular risk management in patients with symptomatic PAD undergoing femoral-popliteal stenting. (PubMed)

And I love the question this research is asking.

PREPARE-IT plans to study 300 patients with symptomatic claudication and compare three approaches: a six-week exercise and risk-management program before their procedure, rehabilitation after their procedure, or a combination of both before and after. Researchers will look at outcomes including time to claudication symptoms, six-minute walk performance, exercise capacity, strength, vascular function, biomarkers and quality of life. (PubMed)

Think about what that could mean for PAD care.

We spend tremendous time and resources restoring blood flow. But opening an artery doesn't automatically restore someone's strength, endurance, confidence or ability to walk.

What happens if we begin preparing the patient before we ever open the artery?

And what happens if we don't stop when the procedure is over?

That's the bigger conversation I want to have with Dr. Myers.

We'll talk about why walking remains such a powerful therapy for PAD, why structured exercise continues to be underused, what decades of exercise research have taught us about intermittent claudication, and whether prehabilitation + revascularization + rehabilitation could eventually change the way we think about the entire PAD treatment journey.

PREPARE-IT is also particularly meaningful to us because patients and patient advocates are involved alongside clinicians, caregivers, payers and health-system leaders in the research. (PCORI)

Because ultimately, success shouldn't simply be: