We are now fast approaching a very busy time for pressure ulcer discussion with several key conferences in the next three months - starting with the Tissue Viability Society conference in April and closing with the 3rd World Union of Wound Healing Societies conference in early June in Toronto.

The TVS conference in Peterborough over the 2nd and 3rd of April has some strong pressure ulcer material including a new guideline covering seating and pressure ulcers. There will also be a dedicated session exploring the effects of shear on pressure ulceration while another presentation will review the impact of pressure ulcers on health related quality of life. Finally there will be an announcement of a new RCN-EPUAP partnership that has developed with the TVS and the TVNA a national pressure ulcer audit focused upon the ability of health care providers to tackle pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. All of these sessions indicate that the TVS conference will, once again, provide strong educational messages related to pressure ulcers.

Moving to the next major event, the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) conference in Lisbon over May 14-16th 2008 there will be a dedicated workshop on the topic of pressure relief however the preliminary programme does not note any other key sessions on pressure ulcers.

Three weeks after Lisbon the focus of the wound healing community switches to Toronto and the World Union meeting expected to attract over 5000 delegates. Pressure ulcers will be one of the 10 main themes of the Toronto meeting with 30 invited presentations upon several aspects of pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. While Toronto may appear to be far away, and perhaps everyone is looking at budgets and wondering whether they can afford to attend this event the range, quality and depth of the pressure ulcer theme alone would make participation really worthwhile.

Perhaps now would be a good time to speak to the platinum commercial supporters of the Toronto event - Smith and Nephew, Coloplast, ConvaTec, Healthpoint Limited, Molnlycke Health Care, KCI Medical Canada Inc and 3M for the goal for pressure ulcer researchers and clinicians must be to try and get to Toronto to support this global event.

Michael Clark
Editor