TheWoundInstitute.com CME Course Designed to Improve Clinical Understanding of Chronic Wounds
Healthpoint (Fort Worth, Tex) announces the launch of “The Biology of the Chronic Wound,” a CE/CME-accredited online course designed to provide a thorough review of the factors that underlie a challenging and costly condition faced by physicians and advanced practice wound care clinicians. The course is available at no cost to clinicians at TheWoundInstitute.com, Healthpoint’s online resource for professionally accredited CE/CME content.
The course will investigate the pathophysiology of chronic wounds, including an examination of the major systemic and local factors contributing to the development of a chronic wound. In addition, the course features in-depth animations, interactive exercises, and “expert opinion” video clips to help explain the complex cellular and biochemical differences between acute and chronic wounds.
For more information, send an e-mail to kathleen.farley@healthpoint.com or call 800-441-8227.
International Medical Summit to Focus on Critical Limb Ischemia and Amputation Prevention
Many of the world’s leading authorities on preventing amputations and salvaging limbs are set to converge on Miami this month for a pioneering medical conference.
The first International Summit on Lower Extremity Peripheral Vascular Disease and Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) is scheduled for October 26–27, 2005, at the Hotel InterContinental in Miami, Fla. The inaugural CLI Summit will be held in conjunction with New Cardiovascular Horizons, now in its fifth year and among North America’s largest multidisciplinary cardiovascular conferences. New Cardiovascular Horizons takes place at the Hotel InterContinental October 27–29.
“The impact of PVD [peripheral vascular disease] and critical limb ischemia is staggering—greater than12,000 amputations are performed every month in the United States,” said David E. Allie, MD, co-chair of New Cardiovascular Horizons and the CLI Summit. “Our goal is to focus attention on reducing the number of amputations and saving the limbs of patients,” said Dr. Allie.
Critical limb ischemia is a serious condition in which the feet and legs have poor circulation with reduced blood flow and lack of oxygen, resulting in pain of the lower extremities even at rest and open sores that do not heal, leading many times to gangrene and amputation.
With current surgical and nonsurgical techniques of revascularization, 5-year survival rates of 80 to 90% or higher are possible, and the patient usually can maintain mobility.
In the vast majority of cases, CLI is associated with advanced atherosclerotic disease and is more common among the elderly and in people with diabetes. “There are more than 19 million patients with diabetes in the US, and CLI is becoming a global epidemic, especially in Florida with a large portion of elderly patients,” said Dr. Allie.
“The sad thing is that with the proper treatment we could avoid up to 90% of the amputations,” said Dr. Allie, who is head of cardiothoracic and endovascular surgery at the Cardiovascular Institute of the South in Lafayette, La, the principal sponsor of the CLI Summit and New Cardiovascular Horizons. Other sponsors include the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, The Podiatry Institute, the Northern Heart and Vascular Institute, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Visit http://www.newcvhorizons.com or http://www.clisummit.com for registration information and to register online.
Market for Surgical and Trauma Wound Care to Surpass $6 Billion by 2009
The worldwide market for products to treat surgical and trauma wounds will surpass the $6 billion mark by 2009, according to a study from Kalorama Information. Wound closure products, such as sutures and staples, dominate the sector, which is currently growing at approximately 7% annually.
The new study, “Wound Care Markets, Volume III: Surgical and Trauma Wounds,” predicts that despite a general slowdown in growth in the next few years, several segments will outperform the sector as a whole. Biological dressings will continue to display double-digit annual growth despite limited use in these types of wounds. Meanwhile, sealants, adhesives, and glues have been catapulting forward at annual growth more than 30%.
The introduction of scores of these new, innovative products has put pressure on marketers and clinicians to standardize product categorizations and indications, adding a new level of complexity to the successful commercialization of wound products.
“There is a decided shift in clinical decision making about dressings, moving toward the drug model—the specific interactions, indications, side effects, etc., rather than categorizing products by components,” notes Mary Anne Crandall, RN, the author of the final report. “This new way of thinking about and labeling products is something marketers need to begin positioning themselves for sooner rather than later.”
The study examines 6 broad categories of products and more than 15 subcategories, detailing market size and growth through 2009, presenting competitive market share, and providing a thorough understanding of the environment in which these wound care manufacturers operate.
For more information, visit http://www.kaloramainformation.com/pub/1099233.html.
Bioengineered Wound Care Products Provide Caregivers with Powerful Options
The introduction of new technologies and products for the treatment of acute and chronic wounds is providing caregivers with a set of powerful options that will have a profound effect on the field of wound management. These new treatment tools, which mimic the body’s natural physiology and/or regenerative pathways, include tissue-engineered skin substitutes, regeneration matrices, and biologically active cellular therapies.
These bioengineered products and therapies will be competing in a worldwide market worth billions and in which improvements in quality of life and treatment outcomes continue to be top healthcare industry initiatives.
While pricing for this new generation of products represents a significant premium relative to existing wound care products, recent studies indicate their ability to promote healing in otherwise refractory wounds places them on a competitive plane in terms of total cost of treatment.
These findings are contained in a new and comprehensive report titled “Bioengineered Wound Care: Products, Players, and Prospects.” The report provides a detailed analysis of 22 bioengineered wound care products and profiles companies active in the advanced wound care therapeutics sector.
More information is available at http://www.greystoneassociates.org.
Source: Greystone Associates |
