NEWS BRIEFS
April 1, 1999
NEWS BRIEFS
Back to a Future’ mixes products, garments, training
Beiersdorf-Jobst has unveiled a new program of products and services targeted to both caregivers and patients. The program, called "Back to a Future," combines wound and skin care products, pressure-therapy garments, professional training, and educational materials for the management of burn wounds.
The product catalog features a full line of derma and wound care products, including Jobskin pressure garments for prevention and management of the hypertrophic scars that frequently result from severe burns. The program offers young Jobskin patients the opportunity to join the Jobskin Kids Club, designed to motivate them to participate in their ongoing burn therapy. Materials available through the club are designed to help patients, their families, and therapists learn more about the benefits of pressure therapy while encouraging the young patients to wear their pressure garments.
The company also provides inservice training for medical professionals, through which physicians, therapists, and others involved in burn treatment learn how to properly fit their patients with Jobskin pressure garments. Additional caregiver and patient education materials are under development by Beiersdorf-Jobst and will be made available through the "Back to a Future" program during 1999.
In addition to its burn and scar management products, Beiersdorf-Jobst manufactures and markets the Jobst line of vascular garments and devices. For more information on the "Back to a Future" program or other products and services available from Beiersdorf-Jobst, call (800) 537-1063.
Board certification now offered for wound care
The American Academy of Wound Management (AAWM) in North Bay Village, FL, now offers board certification for nurses, physicians, physical therapists, and other health care professionals involved in wound care. The AAWM, which is a member of the National Organization for Competency Assurance, is the first cross-disciplinary organization offering certification in wound care.
Applicants must complete a precertification application, which is reviewed by a credentials committee member to determine eligibility for certification. Qualified candidates then must complete the certification application and provide additional documentation of their professional training and experience in wound management. Following approval of this application, certification up to July 1 takes place via submission of a portfolio documenting professional wound care experience.
Beginning Oct. 1, certification will be available only by passing an examination. The certification process takes place only four times a year. Certification is valid for 10 years, after which a recertification exam is required. Until then, it is renewable yearly based on the applicant’s documentation of six hours of continuing education units in wound care. The AAWM will hold a field test for the board certification examination this month.
Certification benefits include a certificate registered by the AAWM, plus designation as a certified wound specialist (CWS), a listing in and copy of the National Registry of Board Certified Wound Specialists, and a subscription to the AAWM’s quarterly publication. The CWS credential is used whenever the name of the person who earned it is used in a professional context.
The AAWM also offers membership categories for those involved in wound care who do not meet eligibility requirements for certification, including those who have an associate’s degree and a year’s experience in wound care, health professionals involved with wound care outside the United States, and students and residents in health-related disciplines with a special interest in wound care.
Fees are: pre-application, $75 (applied toward certification fee); certification, $400; certification renewal, $150; U.S. membership renewal, $75; international membership renewal, $95. For more information, contact the American Academy of Wound Management, 1720 Kennedy Causeway, Suite 109, North Bay Village, FL 33141. Telephone: (305) 866-9592. Fax: (305) 868-0905. E-mail: [email protected]. The AAWM Web site, http://members.aol.com/woundnet, offers information on the wound care specialization trend and a resource section with more than 100 links to wound care-related sites.
Curative offers new learning system
Curative Courseware is a system that describes a clinical pathway for wound healing through a series of on-line learning modules. Available to health care professionals affiliated with Curative Health Services Network of Wound Care Centers, the modules focus on specific areas of chronic wound care by providing up-to-date information, graphics, and videos that are organized around the clinical pathway. These modules contain the research and findings of the scientific community as well as detailed descriptions of clinical applications.
According to Christy Pines, Curative’s manager of interactive communications, "We used to hold medical workshops to bring together the doctors and nurses working in a Curative Wound Care Center so that they could understand the clinical pathways for wound healing, the underlying disease etiologies that might prevent wound healing, all the different things we felt they needed to know in order to have successful outcomes. This was a very expensive process, and people didn’t really like leaving their homes to sit in a classroom for a seminar. It wasn’t a very efficient way of operating. We took all of that content put it into an on-line system. What we have now is a 22-module electronic course that covers all the aspects of wound healing."
Modules are available in a broad range of areas related to the healing of chronic wounds, including: patient assessment, wound assessment, obstacles to wound healing, clinical pathways for wound healing, infection, excision and debridement, growth factor therapy, grafts and flaps, nutrition, hyperbaric oxygen, the diabetic foot, peripheral vascular disease, chronic venous disease, pressure ulcers, new products and technologies, and difficult cases.
"In addition," Pines says, "we had a huge resource of articles, electronic slide presentations, research studies, etc. So we developed an electronic filing cabinet to which anyone in our network can go and look up these materials." Pines says the courseware also contains a "bulletin board" for affiliates to post questions and comments that everybody else in the network can see and respond to. "It’s a wonderful way for someone who’s new to our system to get some help from someone who’s been around for awhile."
The modules also provide practice sessions and a self-administered mechanism for testing a participant’s grasp of the content. Courseware is approved as continuing medical education. For more information, contact Curative Health Services, 150 Motor Parkway, Hauppauge, NY 11788. Telephone: (516) 689-7000.
Flagship offers new wound care management program
Flagship Healthcare in Miami Lakes, FL, has launched an outpatient wound care management program in which enrolled patients are seen in their homes an average of once a week by a member of a wound care team of case managers, wound care nurses, pharmacists, physical and occupational therapists, and nutritionists.
"Many patients with hard-to-heal wounds seek treatment only when their condition becomes unbearable," says Stacey Bateman, company director of program development. "They may go to an emergency room or wound clinic when they have no other choice, but they might not return for months or even years to continue treatment or seek follow-up assessment. We’re placing a strong emphasis on regular preventive treatment for chronic wound patients." Flagship’s program focuses on comprehensive clinical services and patient education to ensure patients receive appropriate care regularly as well as the knowledge required to manage the condition. For more information, call Flagship at (305) 820-0950.
New product sanitizes hands without alcohol
Woodward Laboratories, a Los Alamitos, CA-based manufacturer of antimicrobial products, is introducing HandClens, an alcohol-free instant hand sanitizer for use between hand washes.
In a written statement, Kenneth Gerenraich, DPM, president of Woodward, said the company "developed this germ-killing system to provide a superior method of preventing the spread of infections while protecting the skin of medical professionals who must frequently wash their hands."
"HandClens is the only alcohol-free hand sanitizer on the market," says Dan Pierson, national sales manager for Woodward. A study published in the August 1998 issue of Association of Operating Room Nurses Journal compared alcohol-based hand sanitizers to the alcohol-free HandClens, and found that alcohol-based hand sanitizers become less effective with repeated use and irritate the skin.
The company says HandClens kills 99.9% of most disease-causing germs within 15 seconds, including vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. For more information, call Woodward Laboratories at (800) 780-6999.
Software offers technical support, input, outcomes
Johnson & Johnson Medical, based in Arlington, TX, is preparing to launch WOUNDPRO, a computer software program the company says will assist clinicians in making choices for wound care and management.
According to Steve Noetzel, marketing director for the company, the program contains wound care formularies and wound-specific protocols, tracks patient information, and offers wound caregivers all the information they need to select the correct dressing option, order a product, and track clinical and cost outcomes.
"It’s a point-and-click decision support tool," says Noetzel, "a Windows platform that easily integrates with other software applications. Clinicians enter information on a patient, how the patient presents and how the wound presents. The program then presents them with choices on how they can manage a wound. The program will track the cost of their choices by labor cost and supply cost. It can generate orders for the physician to sign and has different kinds of reports on outcomes tracking. It’s got a tissue type report, cost report for the entire patient history, total size of the wound report, treatment history report, and does some patient wound demographic reports and ICD-9 reporting."
Company generates reports, provides benchmarking
The company also can generate reports for clinicians on a quarterly basis, Noetzel adds. "Of course, they can generate reports right off their own computer," Noetzel says, "but they may have 87 people using the same software. Users can dial into our data center, upload their information, and the data center can generate reports in aggregate for the entire group." Reports then can be provided to wound care clinicians in paper or electronic form.
The data center also will provide benchmarking reports against a national database. A user can send in patients’ information and track their outcomes vs. the national database. If the clinician’s outcomes are worse than the nationals, the company can then suggest other protocols to use.
There will be an initial charge for the software plus a monthly subscription fee. Purchasers will receive program updates and full technical support. For further information and pricing, contact Johnson & Johnson Medical, 2500 E. Arbrook Blvd., Arlington, TX 76014. Telephone: (800) 433-5170.
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