Exit Poll Surveys
May 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dear Today’s Wound Clinic subscriber,
To entice wound care professionals to complete Today’s Wound Clinic online surveys, HMP Communications, publisher of Today’s Wound Clinic, is offering four chances to win a complimentary autographed copy of the latest edition of Chronic Wound Care, and a new Grand Prize opportunity for those that complete all four surveys. Read more
The Power of Paperless: Understanding EMRs
May 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment
A s the wound care industry adapts to the paperless society and electronic medical records (EMRs), there is hesitation by some professionals to embrace the digital push. A large majority of healthcare transactions in the US still take place on paper.
However, our editors Caroline Fife, MD, FAAFP, CWS and Dot Weir, RN, CWON, CWS; and other industry professionals such as N. Blair Hughes, MHS, PT, CWS, director of specialty programs and wound care services for Frederick Memorial Healthcare System (FMHS), Frederick, Md, explain that there are many reasons for wound care facilities to start embracing the technological advantages that are available in EMRs. Fife, chief medical officer at Intellicure, Inc. (The Woodlands, Tex) reviews the company’s option for EMR. Weir, discusses an EMR option that her facility has been using for years, provided by Net Health Systems (Pittsburgh, Pa). Finally, Hughes discusses the EMR option used at her center (FMHS’s Advanced Skin & Wound Care Center) since 2000, provided by Wound Care Strategies (Harrisburg, Pa).
Regardless of their affiliations and personal experiences with the three different companies, Fife, Weir, and Hughes raise some very valuable points and are all advocates of adopting an EMR system in a wound care clinic setting.
For a free look at this complete article in the TWC digital edition visit:
InTech Article
Pneumatic Compression Pump Therapy:
March 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
An Evidence-based Approach to the Treatment of
Chronic Vascular Disorders
Teresa Conner-Kerr, PT, PhD, CWS, CLT
The importance of compression therapy in treating tissue swelling associated with lymphedema and venous insufficiency is well recognized by wound management practitioners. Compression therapy is delivered by a variety of methods with differing levels of evidence to support the use of specific compression modalities. Treatment algorithms prepared by experts from a variety of disciplines using original research are available that provide evidence ratings for particular compression modalities.1,2
In The Venous Ulcer Guideline developed by the Government and Regulatory Task Force of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care, an “A” level of evidence was assigned to eight different compression therapy options.2 One of the eight therapeutic modalities receiving an “A” level rating was intermittent pneumatic compression.
Pneumatic compression pumps have been in use since the 1960s for the treatment of limb swelling due to both acute and chronic conditions. Pneumatic compression pumps consist of an electric pneumatic pump that is used to push compressed room air into an inflatable garment or sleeve either continuously or intermittently depending on inflation and deflation times. Most pneumatic compression pumps today use intermittent compression cycles with inflation and deflation cycles either preset or programmable by the clinician. The sleeve or garment may have a single chamber design with one port or a multiple chamber design with one port per chamber. Pressure may be graded with the highest pressures in distal chamber segments. Depending on the specific manufacturer, compression cycles, treatment times, and compression levels may be either preset or programmable. Multichamber sequential compression pumps typically provide the greatest programming flexibility. Newer compression pump technology such as the Lympha-pants™ (LymphaCare, New York, NY) employs large multi-segment chambers that cover bilateral limbs and the lower or upper trunk simultaneously so that a comprehensive treatment may be delivered in a more efficient manner. The sequential inflation of chambers from distal to proximal in these devices is also thought to more naturally mimic lymph return.
For a preview of this article in TWC’s digital edition, visit
InTech
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Centrifugal Debridement Using Advanced Surgical Technology
October 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Modern literature on debridement initially centered on the life-saving benefits of debriding wounds sustained during war. The impact of debridement on decreasing war wound-related mortality was so profound that a century ago the concept of radical debridement became a dogmatic imprint on surgical mentality that has only recently been challenged.1,2
