THE Business Office has been extremely active, particularly with the
organisation of our 8th Annual EPUAP Open Meeting in Aberdeen,
Scotland, in May 2005.

The interest in this meeting has been considerable and this is reflected in
the fact that we expect more than 500 participants to attend. In addition,
support for the meeting from our EPUAP corporate members, as well as
other industrial companies, has been extremely good. More than eighty abstracts
have been submitted for the meeting – again showing the strong interest
in pressure ulcers.

Support from the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre as well as
the Convention Bureau of Aberdeen has also been excellent. They were part
of our EPUAP stand at the World Union of Wound Healing Societies in Paris
last August, promoting Aberdeen and its lovely surrounding countryside.
A number of the trustees attended the 9th National Conference of the
NPUAP in Tampa Florida, USA at which the EPUAP had an exhibit stand
which was well received, particularly the educational computerized PUCLAS
programme. Tom Defloor our President-elect was an invited speaker at this
meeting in which a good portion of the programme consisted of re-examining
the concept of pressure ulcer staging introducing the concept of deep
tissue injury.

Figure 1
Site visit to Berliner Congress Center, Berlin, Germany.
From left to right: Jacqui Fletcher, Christine Cherry, Michael Clark and Willi Jung.

Figure 2
George Rodeheaver receiving the Kosiak Award
from the President of the NPUAP, Mary Ellen Posthauer, Tampa, 2005.

In addition future joint initiatives between the two pressure ulcer organisations were discussed with regard to international guidelines and the concept of shear forces. A follow-up meeting will be held on the afternoon of May 7th. Dr George Rodeheaver, past president and founding member of NPUAP received the esteemed Kosiak Award at this meeting. Members of the scientific committee, Business Office as well as Willi Jung of Germany made a site visit to Berlin where next year’s meeting will be held from 31 August – 2 September 2006. We were well impressed with the Berliner Congress Center where the meeting will be held as well as the number of hotels and other facilities which should make next year’s meeting in Berlin as excellent as our past annual meetings.

Lastly the trustees met in Brugge Belgium in March at a meeting hosted by Tom Defloor. This meeting was very successful and many of the past and new activities of the EPUAP were discussed.

We look forward to seeing you in Aberdeen where we will all experience excellent Scottish hospitality as well as a superb scientific programme.

Dr George W. Cherry
Secretary/Treasurer