Click here for the Wounds UK Home Page January 2008

Forthcoming Events     Congratulations MARY JONES MBE         Networking           Smith and Nephew press releases

2008 promises to be an eventful year in all areas of healthcare. With the 2007 ending in controversy over salaries and an impending shortage of nurses, another year of uncertainty looks likely. Gordon Brown did pay tribute to nurses across the NHS this week in a speech in which he promised to support change and improvement in the NHS. Yet the issue of salary is not the only worry for NHS staff, morale remains low following the implementation of Agenda for Change and many specialist posts are still under threat. Despite this, there is still a huge amount of work being done in all fields of wound care. The year ended with a growing number of Topical Negative Pressure Therapy Systems becoming available for use, with more companies entering this area of wound care. I believe that this segment of the market will grow hugely over the coming years, with more patients able to access this treatment modality. Another key issue which we as a group must embrace, is our role in caring for patients with wound infection. A recent audit in Scotland by HPS (Health Protection Scotland) found a large number of patients in all care settings with soft tissue infection secondary to pressure ulceration. Similar audits are planned in other areas of the UK and there is a huge opportunity for tissue viability to play a more proactive role in relation to treatment and management of wound infection in chronic and acute wounds. Another area of interest is the role of e clinics in wound management. Grampian Health Board have been trialing an e clinic based in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Tissue Viability Department. This has been a very successful pilot and has proven a vital link for some nurses in more rural areas and in also has proven extremely useful for patient follow up after discharge. John Timmons Editor

Papers of Interest Latest references

Forthcoming Events Tissue Viability Society - 2008 Annual Conference 2-3 April 2008, East of England Showground Peterborough Celebrating Success in Tissue Viability - 50 years of multi-professional progress. CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline 31 January 2008 1st Annual International Lymphoedema Conference & Exhibition. 22-23 April 2009, Royal Ascot In association with the Global Lymphoedema Framework (GLF) and the Journal of Lymphoedema (JOL) JCN Roadshows Many events throughout 2008, for more information is the website on:www.jcn.co.uk 7th National AWMA Conference - Darwin, Australia 7 - 10 May 2008 - For more information see the following website: www.awma.com.au World Union of Wound Healing Societies' Meeting 2008 4 - 8 June 2008. For more information view the website:www.worldunion2008.com   Keep reading for: Congratulations MARY JONES MBE Networking Smith and Nephew press releases Papers of interest Download this newsletter in PDF format Congratulations MARY JONES MBE Mary Jones, sometimes known as Mary Maggot now with Zoobiotic, joined the Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory (SMTL) in 1995 as a research nurse in wound care, performing clinical trials on surgical dressings. Mary got involved with the research and development of maggot therapy performing some of the first MDT (Maggot Debridement Therapy) treatments in the UK since the re-emergence of larval therapy. Working for a number of years with Dr Steve Thomas and other members of the team from SMTL (now Zoobiotic), Mary has been instrumental in promoting larval therapy amongst healthcare professionals and patients.   Keep reading for: Networking Smith and Nephew press releases Papers of interest Download this newsletter in PDF format Networking Following the last news letter I received some correspondence from a company which specializes in telemedicine who are happy to answer any questions relating to their current projects which include chronic disease management, COPD and Diabetes. To contact them log onto: www.tplusmedical.com   Keep reading for: Smith and Nephew press releases Papers of interest Download this newsletter in PDF format Smith and Nephew press releases Smith & Nephew launch new ALLEVYN™ product range at European Customer Conference Click here to download the pdf Smith & Nephew announces international launch of new ALLEVYN. Gentle and ALLEVYN . Gentle Border wound dressings. Click here to download the pdf Smith & Nephew showcase VERSAJET. at Scottish Customer Conference Click here to download the pdf Keep reading for: Papers of interest Download this newsletter in PDF format   References - Papers of interest Baranoski S (2008) Choosing a wound dressing, part 1, Nursing Volume 38 Number 1 Pages 60 - 61 Lavery LA, Barnes SA, Keith MS, Seaman Jr JW and Armstrong DG (2008) Prediction of Healing for Postoperative Diabetic Foot Wounds Based on Early Wound Area Progression January 1, 2008; 31(1): 26 - 29 Luis R. Leon Jr, Shemuel B Psalms, Jodi Walters (2007) Diabetic foot infections in the elderly: primary amputation versus 'foot-sparing surgery'. A case report International Wound Journal 4 (4), 315-321 Pierre-Jean Wipff, Daniel B. Rifkin, Jean-Jacques Meister and Boris Hinz, (2007) "Myofibroblast contraction activates latent TGF-b from the extracellular matrix", Journal of Cell Biology.   Download this newsletter in PDF format