Pressure ulcers: the next twelve months?

As we fast approach the end of yet another year perhaps it is appropriate to look forward to the potential pressure ulcer highlights for 2008? Next year promises to be relatively full of new pressure ulcer information shared through guidelines, conferences and publications. Thinking first about guidelines the recommendations of the joint EPUAP and NPUAP pressure ulcer prevention and treatment guidelines will come together in draft format over the spring and stakeholders who have registered at www.pressureulcerguidelines.org will be the first to see and comment upon these important drafts. If you have not yet signed up as a stakeholder why not consider doing this to be able to shape these new guidelines? There will also be a guideline produced by the Tissue Viability Society upon seating and pressure ulcers next spring. This guideline seeks to complete a gap in current practice guidelines by specifically addressing the needs of the seated person in regard to pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. The Tissue Viability Society would like to thank Huntleigh Heathcare who have provided an unrestricted educational grant to allow the work upon the guideline to be undertaken.

As for conferences the pressure ulcer community will have their challenges in deciding which events to attend next year given the number and quality of appropriate national and international events. The year will start as usual with the Tissue Viability Society annual conference and next month's newsletter will report the full programme for this event. If you would like to submit an abstract for a free paper or poster presentation e-mail the TVS at tissue.viability@btinternet.com. Please note this new e-mail address for the Tissue Viability Society! The TVS conference will take place in Peterborough over the 2nd and 3rd of April 2008. After which time pressure ulcer conference interest moves to Lisbon for the European Wound Management Association conference over the 14th to 16th May 2008. The deadline for submission of abstracts to this conference is February 1st 2008. One month after Lisbon the pressure ulcer focus will move west to Toronto for a challenging pressure ulcer stream of invited presentations during the 3rd Meeting of the World Union of Wound Healing Societies (June 4th to 8th 2008), and the final date for submission of abstracts to this event is December 15th 2007. After Toronto the conference season moves to Bruges in Belgium for the annual meeting of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel over the 3rd to the 6th of September 2008 with abstracts to be submitted by April 1st 2008. After Bruges the next main conference will, of course by Wounds UK 2008 in November. So for all with an interest in pressure ulcers there will be a lot of major conferences over the next 12 months and hopefully the quality of the new pressure ulcer research presented at these events will make 2008 a year to remember in the pressure ulcer field!

Michael Clark
Editor