STOP PRESSURE ULCERS
The EPUAP invites you to take part in next year’s Stop Pressure Ulcers to help bring pressure ulcers to a wider audience.
Every 3rd Thursday of November is devoted to the Stop Pressure Ulcer Day. The next one will be held on November 16th 2023. The European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel applauds the efforts of such events to bring pressure ulcers to the public, the professionals and our politicians. EPUAP has once again decided to join the Stop Pressure Ulcers to help publicise pressure ulcers. To this end, we will continue to provide freely available publicity material on our website.
HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED?
- Host educational activities on prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers
- Organise awareness-raising events to share information about pressure ulcers
- Reach out to your local community to inform them about pressure ulcers
- Make policy makers aware of pressure ulcers
- Join STOP Pressure Ulcers community on social media
PATIENT SAFETY
Joint EPUAP & EWMA Pressure Ulcer Prevention & Patient Safety Advocacy Project
EPUAP and The European Wound Management Association (EWMA) are collaborating on a joint engagement in the PU prevention and patient safety agendas at the European level as well as at the national level in selected European countries. The project is currently expected to run for 2 years (1 July 2016 – 30 June 2018).
Patient safety has for some years been high on the European Commission health care agenda. At the EU level as well as at national levels of many European nations, considerable investments have been made by health care authorities to establish organisations and programmes addressing the patient safety agenda.
Looking at the patient safety agenda from a wound care perspective, the topic of Pressure Ulcer (PU) prevention has always been central due to the fact that most PU’s are preventable if the patient is managed correctly by health care staff. Consequently, both EPUAP and EWMA have separately been advocating for the prevention of PU’s as major health care and patient safety issue. Whereas EPUAP, in particular, has strongly supported the annual STOP Pressure Ulcer campaign, EWMA has in collaboration with the Eucomed Advanced Wound Care Sector group earlier engaged in raising attention in the European Parliament and the European Commission in connection with the EU Joint Action on Patient Safety and Quality of Care (PaSQ) programme.
Activities achieved and expected
- An epidemiology overview based on existing European prevalence data is in progress. This is coordinated by Professor Zena Moore with an expected presentation at the EPUAP 2017 conference, 20-22 September in Belfast (indsæt hyperlink)
- Consecutive meetings between Professor Lisette Schoonhoven and the chair of OECD Health Care Quality Indicators expert group since November 2016
- Meetings between the project group and selected representatives of the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament, to raise awareness and call for preventive action against the development of PUs in particular.
- Regular publication and dissemination of information and articles about patient safety and PU prevention
- Joint presentations at the annual conferences of EWMA and EPUAP. The first of these took place at the EWMA Amsterdam conference 3-5 May 2017
EPUAP – EWMA Articles on Patient Safety across Europe
The perspective of pressure ulcers
The time to invest in patient safety and pressure ulcer prevention is now!
Diabetic Control & Pressure Ulcers – fighting fatal complications and improving quality of life
EWMA & EPUAP added-value to OECD efforts
The role of pressure ulcers in the fight against antimicrobial resistance
Pressure ulcer monitoring: a process of evidence-based practice, data sharing and joint efforts
Disability in Europe: the invisible burden of pressure ulcers
Joint working group
- EPUAP representatives: Prof. Zena Moore (chair), Prof. Lisette Schoonhoven, Prof. Jane Nixon, Dr Jan Kottner
- EWMA representatives: PhD Jose Verdu Soriano (chair), Prof. Andrea Pokorná, Dr Hubert Vuagnat.
Resources
Please consult the following resources for further information about the topic of patient safety and pressure ulcer prevention at the European level.
- The Economics of Patient Safety: Strengthening a value-based approach to reducing patient harm at the national level. Published by OECD, March 2017. Download at http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/hcqi-patient-safety.htm
For any questions or comments please contact:
- EPUAP secretariat: Adina Markova, adina@codan-consulting.com
- EWMA secretariat: Jan Kristensen, jnk@ewma.org
The project is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from:
EPUAP FUNDING
The EPUAP Research Committee opens yearly a call for 2 collaboration projects.
Research Project Collaboration Funding
- There are opportunities to underpin high-quality research through the development of agreed standards and language with clear publication outputs or to pump prime future collaborative funding bids. The funding is not for direct research costs, but rather costs to facilitate face-to-face (i.e. travel, accommodation and venue costs) meetings of collaborators from EU member and associated countries* and will comprise a maximum of €10 000 over 1-2 years. The funding is available only for EPUAP members.
Exchange Scholarships for Emerging Research
- For students / early post docs (*) in the context of “emerging pressure ulcer research”. The aim is to provide opportunities for Master/PhD students or early post-docs exchanges between high-quality laboratories and clinical academic teams working in the field of pressure ulcer management and prevention. Interdisciplinary works should be encouraged. Funding is awarded to cover travel and subsistence (some research costs may be permitted) and spend one to four weeks in another clinical/research structure that is based in a EU member country or associated country, with the objective to learn a specific experimental technique or methodological approach
PROPHYLACTIC DRESSING STANDARDS INITIATIVE (PDSI)
The European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP) and the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (NPIAP) are pleased to anno
unce the launch of the joint EPUAP-NPIAP Prophylactic Dressing Standards Initiative (PDSI) and the establishment of a dedicated international Task Force to lead and develop this initiative.
The new PDSI Task Force will include expert representatives of all relevant stakeholder groups and apply a transparent policy for the balance of influences among the different stakeholder groups (e.g. industry, clinicians, researchers, policy-makers etc.). The immediate and first priority of the PDSI Task Force will be to develop a consensus on the scope of prophylactic dressing standards and prioritize specific elements of this scope, that is, select the specific topics and standards for initial development efforts.
Next, we will develop these testing standards over a 3-year period, validate the developed standards and submit them for accreditation through international and national standard organizations. An Unrestricted Development Fund will be developed for resourcing the activities of the PDSI and all stakeholders are invited to support the initiative through this mechanism.
In the near future we will reach out to the relevant industry networks of the two organizations with additional information and details. At this time, however, we invite all potential stakeholders who wish to be listed in our databases for this PSDI, regardless of whether they have existing connections with the EPUAP or NPIAP, and irrespective of their geographical location (i.e. including entities or individuals outside Europe and the US), to inform us of their interest in the above PDSI initiative.
For additional information and expression of interest, please contact the two Co-Chairs of the PDSI Task Force directly:
Professor David Brienza at the NPIAP (DBRIENZA@pitt.edu)
Professor Amit Gefen at the EPUAP (gefen@tauex.tau.ac.il)