10 March, 2013
The Diabetic Foot Clinic Team at Kings College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London has won the wound assessment category of the 2013 Journal of Wound Care (JWC) awards.
The Diabetic Foot team at Kings College Hospital has built a reputation for innovation in diabetic foot care – an area of increasing importance as diabetes prevalence soars. They established a multi-disciplinary diabetic foot clinic in 1981, one of the first in the world.
The team has pioneered the use of the Silhouette® electronic wound imaging, wound assessment and information management system for clinical studies and clinical practice development in the management of patients with diabetic foot ulcers. The system is helping the clinic to achieve reliable digital wound imaging and 3D wound measurement for objective wound assessment and accurate monitoring of the healing progress of diabetic foot ulcers.
Professor Michael Edmonds Consultant Physician, says the Diabetic Foot Clinic has successfully completed an evaluation of Silhouette and is now working towards expanding use of the system to underpin the Diabetic Foot Pathway with better clinical information and information flow. “Based on the reliable diabetic foot ulcer progress profile generated for each patient, including digital image, wound size change over time and clinical notes , the assessment and treatment review of patients is easier and more robust. This supports more accurate and rapid assessment of the patient, a critical part of the decision-making and helps to ensure that the patient is on the right treatment plan at the earliest point. The key is using this critical information to drive improved outcomes and enhance patient experience which can often be a harrowing journey for a patient with an active diabetic foot ulcer where risk of further complications and amputation add to the anxiety and quality of life impact. ”
Professor Michael Edmonds, Consultant Physician, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, accepts the wound assessment award on behalf of the Diabetic Foot Clinic team.
Improving wound care productivity
Maureen Bates, Podiatry Manager says the team has observed how the electronic wound assessment system makes a difference to staff and patients. ”The advantage of this approach is that the system maps the ulcer size changes in a precise, quantitative and highly visual way and makes our jobs easier in assessing wound progress and treatment planning and patients can actually see progress and understand the interventions we are using and importantly their own role in reaching treatment goals.”
Achala Patel, Director of Entec Health Ltd, which distributes Silhouette in the UK, says the Kings Diabetic Foot Clinic team has demonstrated an open mind and strong commitment to seeking out new approaches to improve outcomes and experience for patients with diabetic foot ulcers.
“As is true for the Kings College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, all health providers in the UK are required to optimise outcomes, cost-effectiveness and patient experience in a complex and challenging environment” she says. “The Diabetic Foot Clinic Team at Kings College Hospital is leading the way in exploring how enabling technology such as Silhouette can support delivery of these demanding goals and build increased capability for progressive and accountable healthcare organisations.”
The aim of the JWC Awards is to benchmark standards within wound care and highlight the great contribution that nurses, clinicians, scientists, researchers and academics make to the development of wound-care research and practice.
Dr Bruce Davey, the CEO of ARANZ Medical Ltd, which produces Silhouette, says the Kings team are pioneers in wound care looking for better ways to support wound assessment – a process widely recognized as involving costly treatments and complex processes in which multiple healthcare professionals need to communicate wound progress accurately.
“Health providers are required to optimize wound care service performance and are increasingly seeking better ways to manage their wound assessment, measurement and documentation practice,” he says. “The Diabetic Foot Clinic Team at Kings College Hospital is leading the way, showing other providers how, in the 21st century, wound assessment can be used as an opportunity to build patient engagement in the healing process and monitor key indicators to enable them to operate in the modern, accountable health environment.”
The aim of the JWC Awards is to benchmark standards within wound care and highlight the great contribution that nurses, clinicians, scientists, researchers and academics make to the development of wound-care research and practice.
Read this Wounds UK article by leading wound care expert Jacqui Fletcher about how Silhouette™ simplifies the management of information for clinicians who need a quick and easy way to record electronic data about wound care patients.
