European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel

EPUAP, in reaching the milestone of having its 10th anniversary meeting in Oxford this year, in August, has made many accomplishments in its relatively short history of which it should be proud. One of these is the publication (in 2006) of the book Science and practice of pressure ulcer management, edited by Marco Romanelli. In the chapter that I contributed: ‘EPUAP Advisory Panel, a means of identifying and dealing with a major health problem with a European Health Initiative’ (which is one of twenty-two other chapters in the book) I described how the organisation was formed with an inaugural meeting in London in 1996 consisting of representatives from thirteen European countries, and the USA. Many of those that attended this meeting have supported the EPUAP over the years by making major contributions to our mission statement: ‘the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel’s objective is to provide the relief of person suffering from, or at risk of pressure ulcers, in particular through research and the education of the public’.

One of our first accomplishments was producing evidence based guidelines on prevention and management of pressure ulcers. This initial work was done nine years ago and at that time there was a paucity of evidence. Tom Defloor our present president and Carol Dealey our president-elect in their article in this issue describe the new major prevention guideline project which is being co-ordinated by Katrien Vanderwee, (www.pressureulcerguidlines.org). We have also included in this issue a list of stakeholders which includes other societies, industry and individuals.

In order to carry out such a project without support from industry would be impossible, though the EPUAP is contributing financially to the project. We are pleased that three companies have made major financial contributions and these are Numico, Huntleigh and KCI. We anticipate our other corporate sponsors will become part of this initiative.

The Tenth Anniversary meeting which will begin on Thursday 30 August should be a great success and, as you can read in Tom Defloor’s article, there has been a major increase in abstract submission along with quality. The programme can be seen in this issue, together with a registration form if you have not yet registered.

Also in this issue, Jos Schols has produced an article on ‘Pressure ulcer care in the Netherlands; a short historical review’. In addition we have obtained permission from the Journal of Wound Care to reprint an article ‘Evaluation of the dissemination and implementation of a nutritional guideline for pressure ulcer care’ which was published by members of the nutritional working group of the EPUAP.

The Business Office has played an important role in the development of the EPUAP since its initial organisation. This includes organising all of the annual meetings starting with the first two here in Oxford followed by Amsterdam, Le Mans, Pisa, Budapest, Tampere, Berlin and the World Union meeting in Paris. In addition the office publishes the Review and is responsible for the EPUAP website (www.epuap.org) which is extremely popular.

Educational material is distributed to practitioners and others interested in pressure ulcers. The success has been due to the individuals working in the office, but probably more importantly has been the liaison established through the office and our corporate sponsors, who without their support we could not continue to meet our charity’s mission statement.

We look forward to welcoming you to Oxford at our Tenth Anniversary Meeting.

Dr George W. Cherry

Secretary Treasurer EPUAP