European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel

Guidelines and the Future

The EPUAP, with this year's 12th Annual meeting in Amsterdam, will be continuing to meet its mission statement: 'To provide the relief of persons suffering from, or at risk of pressure ulcers, in particular through research and the education of the public.' In fact, our third meeting was held at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam with the local organiser Dr Maarten Lubbers who is also hosting this year's meeting.

Some of our first achievements were Guidelines on Prevention, Treatment and Nutrition with reference to pressure ulcers, as well as a prevalence study in a number of European countries. These were associated with the PEPUS study under the direction of Dr Christina Lindholm as was the publication of a major textbook, The Science and Practice of Pressure Ulcer Management, with Dr Marco Romanelli as Editor in chief.

However, the major project in which the EPUAP has been involved since February 2007 has been the updating of the prevention guidelines (which Carol Dealey reports in her letter) and the resulting 'Quick Reference Guidelines' are to be found in this issue. This undertaking has been a particularly expensive endeavour.

The majority of the costs of the project were met through the income generated by the annual meetings organised by the Business Office, as well as support from a number of our corporate sponsors.

Obviously the next challenge is dissemination of this work by the EPUAP as well as understanding what role that the NPUAP will play in distributing both sets of guidelines.

The translation of the Prevention Guidelines has already been started by a number of our trustees from various countries and, as with the original guidelines, funding will be sought from Industry for the publication of these translations.

In this issue of the EPUAP Review we also have an article by Dr Cees Oomens describing the work carried out in his laboratory, as well as the direction he would like to follow as the new President of the EPUAP.

And finally, there is an interesting article from one of our corporate sponsors – ArjoHuntleigh – describing this dynamic company who have been actively involved with EPUAP since its beginning.

Dr George W. Cherry

Treasurer
EPUAP Business Office