AAWC Update

 The Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC) is pleased to present an extended news and information section for this year’s AAWC Focus Issue of OWM. We hope we arouse your interest in our organization and that you will decide to join the 2,000+ wound care professionals and others dedicated to the advancement of wound care.

Wounds In Need (WIN) Today

  With more than 110 patient and lay-caregiver members and other layperson advocates, the AAWC is helping people with wounds win the battle with chronic wounds through lifetime memberships. The working group leading these efforts, the WIN Team, is focused is on a patient-centered education, the Wound Patient/Caregiver Resources pages of the AAWC Website, and the AAWC Advocacy for Patients and Caregivers Facebook page. The AAWC WIN Task Force publishes a patient-focused quarterly newsletter to provide educational, easy-to-comprehend information for the general public, including the amusing and informative “Wounds Talking Now” column and paraphrased wound research papers edited for the general public. The newsletter also reports on AAWC WIN goals, activities, and accomplishments. These newsletters can be printed from the AAWC Resources page of our website. Please share them with patients and place them within your wound facility waiting rooms for the public to read.

  While on the website, please visit the Patient/Caregiver Resources pages to see how the AAWC is supporting the general public and encouraging membership. We hope to grow this membership category to provide a singular voice for patients and lay-caregivers under the umbrella of the AAWC.

  Any wound care patient, personal caregiver, or nonhealthcare professional patient advocate who wishes to take advantage of this free membership opportunity should email Patient_Advocacy@aawconline.org or call (800) 237-7285, extension 113.

AAWC Volunteers: It is in Giving that We Receive

  Global volunteers. The AAWC Global Volunteers program continues to expand, providing wound care services across the globe. All AAWC Members are invited to volunteer. These services are made possible through AAWC’s partnership with Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO). Recent accomplishments abroad include:
    • New site in India initiated and ready for volunteers
    • Continued interest in the Cambodia site
    • Two new sites in Haiti, one recently opened
    • Discussion about opening a site in central Africa for wound and lymphedema treatment
    • An active site in Peru.

  Volunteer today. Learn more at https://aawconline.org/professional-resources/global-volunteers/

  US volunteers. A new division of the AAWC Global Volunteers Program, has been established: the AAWC US Volunteers. This program, led by program chair and AAWC Board Member, Heather Hettrick, PT, PhD, CWS, MLT, DCE, is a unique undertaking in response to many members’ acknowledging wound care needs in the US, as well as abroad. Few volunteer organizations exist to support medical needs here at home; we are proud to be among them.

  Using our overseas approach as a model, the goal of US Volunteers is to send qualified personnel to resource-poor areas of the US that have been determined to be high risk for patients with nonhealing wounds. The volunteers’ mission is to train local healthcare personnel (“train the trainer”), who then can provide enhanced wound care, and in time, assume the role of training others.

  The AAWC is dedicated to working with multiple like-minded organizations across the country in this effort. The goal is to collaborate and create a method to provide the most current, advanced, evidence-based wound care practices via education to the underserved in resource-poor areas of the US.

  More information will be provided to AAWC Members when volunteer opportunities are launched in the near future. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer or know of an organization that may wish to partner with AAWC in its US Volunteer Program, please contact Heather Hettrick at hhettrickpt@gmail.com.

AAWC and DebRA: Working Together

  The AAWC and the Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association of America (DebRA) have partnered to help patients and families living with epidermolysis bullosa (EB). EB is a rare and painful genetic disorder resulting in internal organ and external manifestations — the most prominent and well known is blistering and tearing of the skin from the slightest friction or trauma. Currently there is no cure or viable treatment for the disorder.

  DebRA is committed to funding research toward a cure for EB, while responding to the increased need to provide direct services to patients and their families. To learn more, visit www.debra.org. The Association’s partnership with DebRA will provide AAWC members an opportunity to volunteer to help improve the quality of care for EB sufferers and their families. If you are interested in joining the Task Force to further develop this program or to volunteer, please contact Karen Strauss at kstrauss@aawconline.org.

AAWC’s Speakers Bureau

  The AAWC has initiated its Speakers Bureau to the public as a complimentary service. The Bureau has compiled a growing database of wound care experts from diverse fields of healthcare. Speakers must pass rigorous standards to be selected to participate, which may include taking the AAWC Speaker Training course if necessary. Clients requiring speakers are usually health education conferences or regional meeting planners, but also may include hospitals and other medical facilities, institutions of higher learning, K–12 schools, and media personnel. The AAWC’s experienced team of medical professionals addresses topics from wound care basics to the most challenging cases to inspirational stories, delivering the message tailored to your needs. Please visit the speakers listing on our website to find an expert and/or inspiration in the field of wound care today.

  Those interested in joining AAWC’s pool of talented speakers are invited to apply to the AAWC Speakers Bureau program. An application has been supplied on page 41, or you may download the application form from the AAWC website. However, this is an AAWC Membership Benefit. You must be a member of AAWC to apply. Join or renew today at www.aawconline.org.

  How does the program work? The AAWC’s dedicated staff initiates the introduction between speaker and client, based on the client’s request to the AAWC for a specific speaker (based on the speaker’s noted area of expertise/interest). If the speaker accepts the invitation from a potential client, all further arrangements are made directly between client and speaker. The Bureau’s policy is not to collect a speaker’s fee. However, Bureau speakers may accept any honoraria and expense reimbursement offered by or negotiated with the client. The AAWC and its Speakers Bureau do not guarantee utilization of any speaker on its Bureau, nor does it guarantee any specific number of presentations. Please visit https://aawconline.org/speakers-bureau-program/ for the full guidelines.

  AAWC speaker training is available. The AAWC developed an AAWC Speaker Training Course, available at the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) Spring in Denver on May 4, 2012. Pamela Scarborough, PT, DPT, MS, CDE, CWS, CEEAA, and Terry Treadwell, MD, FACS, wound care experts and exceptional, established speakers will lead this session and instruct novices on the basics, explain how to organize an effective PowerPoint presentation, and provide practical tips for facing an audience and delivering an effective message. The course will be made available at future SAWC conferences as well.

Scholarship Program Revamped This Year

  The AAWC is proud to offer scholarship opportunities to members. Association members can apply for any of the following four grants:
    • A teaching grant could help fund your opportunity to teach wound care away from home in the continental US or abroad
    • A learning grant could help you to begin, continue, or complete a course of study at an institution of higher learning
    • An exchange/travel grant could help fund your travel to teach or learn when participating in an exchange-type program. To be eligible, you just need to show how the program/trip would benefit you in your wound care career and how it could assist others
    • The Robert A. Warriner III, MD Memorial Scholarship is a new award and the criteria are currently being established. This annual award will honor the memory of Dr. Warriner, whose passion for education, leadership, and writing to promote high standards in medical practice touched so many lives. His long list of national and international honors and awards for the advancement of clinical hyperbaric medicine and wound healing is an inspiration to us all.

  The AAWC Scholarship Program awards up to $7,500 per year. Scholarship applications must be submitted to the AAWC business office between May 1 and August 31 of each year. Scholarship recipients are notified by October 15. To apply, please visit https://aawconline.org/scholarships/ to access the scholarship application and the full description of the application process. Scholarships are available only to members of the AAWC.

AAWC Website News

  Our website provides a wealth of information, alerts, and news, as well as two resource centers — one for healthcare professionals and one for patients and their caregivers — plus portals to several of AAWC’s programs and services, such as the speakers bureau and scholarship program.

  A task force has been created to maintain the AAWC Website and includes a team of members working to provide an ever-changing, informative website with the most up-to-date information about wound care. If you are interest in providing content for the website, please contact kstrauss@aawconline.org.

  Website highlights:
    • Guidelines. The AAWC offers venous ulcer and pressure ulcers guidelines based on the best evidence available. Copies of the guidelines and their evidence tables can be found in the AAWC Guidelines section at the top of the Professional Resource Center. The AAWC Guidelines Committee is busy at work creating two additional guidelines: Wound Infection and Diabetic Foot Ulcers.
    • AAWC patient education brochures. The AAWC Public Awareness Task Force has developed an evidence based educational brochure on the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers, Take the Pressure Off. The brochure is designed to help patients and their caregivers by providing critical information in a nonclinical, easy-to-read format; it describes the process and appearance of developing pressure ulcers and provides important tips for preventing and treating pressure ulcers. Other brochures available from the AAWC are: ABC’s of Skin and Wound Care, The Skin You’re In, and Dress and Compress for Success. Download and print the brochures for free at the AAWC website, or purchase quality prints for a nominal fee from our online store. All but the latest brochure are available in Spanish as well (to print from website only.) Take the Pressure Off will be published in Spanish soon.
    • AAWC Quality of Care Wound Care Glossary. The AAWC Wound Care Glossary is available on our website for public use. The evidenced-based, validated glossary provides more than 300 wound care terms with definitions. This glossary has been designed to bring everyone to the same page on wound care terms.

    • AAWC wound research poster tools and critiques. Found in the Professional Resource Center of AAWC’s website, these tools will help you create an effective, methodologically rigorous poster for dissemination of your findings. Included are:
    1. Wound Research Posters Template — a model of a quality research poster
    2. Wound Research Posters Critique Form – the document used by the AAWC Research Committee and Board of Directors to critique posters. This provides the expectations for a quality poster
    3. Conducting Implementation Studies information on how to conduct implementation studies
    4. Conducting Quasi Experimental Design Studies — presents wound research methodology conducted using quasi-experimental designs
    5. Conducting Pre-Experimental Studies Part 1 and Part 2 — explains methodology of wound research conducted using pre-experimental designs.

  Additionally, the AAWC Research Committee and Board of Directors review and critique a select number of wound research posters accepted for presentation at the SAWC conferences. Each poster reviewed by the AAWC is recognized with a certificate of participation, and the primary author (or presenting author) is provided with the written critique of the poster. Posters for review are selected by the AAWC Research Committee and based on participant request when poster abstracts are submitted for consideration. Authors of posters selected are required to submit their poster content to the AAWC Research committee chair before the SAWC to facilitate review. A small of number of wound research posters reviewed by the AAWC Research committee are included in the AAWC Research Poster Grand Rounds session during the SAWC conferences. This is an exciting opportunity to increase the level of rigor and the strength of our work in wound care.

    • Virtual Wound™. Everyone who visits the AAWC website can try the Virtual Wound™ module on “Basic Wound Assessment.” However, AAWC members have access to five additional wound care training modules in the “Members Only” pages. These include: Diabetic Foot Ulcers, Chronic Venous Insufficiency, Skin Assessment, Pressure Ulcer, Peripheral Arterial Disease.
    • Career Center. Our site is specifically targeted to wound care professionals and the clinical and industrial jobs they seek. Persons reviewing job postings through the AAWC Career Center are skilled wound care professionals who have looked to AAWC as a credible resource for career advancement. Likewise, the best employers for wound care have posted their jobs here, because they know where qualified wound professionals look for valuable resources.

  AAWC Members save 50% or more on job postings — ie, a minimum $100 in savings. The AAWC Career Center is free to all job seekers and provides access to the best employers and jobs in the wound care industry.

    • AAWC Wound Care Clinic Directory. The AAWC provides a yearly Wound Care Clinic Directory in PDF format to our members. It is sent via email when each new edition is ready, and it is located in the Members Only area of the AAWC website. The directory provides information on stand-alone clinics or centers, private office facilities, hospitals, and home healthcare organizations, including facility name, Director or designee, address, phone, fax, email, website, and type of clinic/center. Currently, the directory has more than 900 listings of wound healthcare providers.

  The Association offers this directory in the AAWC Online Store in two reasonably priced options for the directory (PDF or Excel). This great marketing tool is also surprisingly affordable. The PDF version is a regular benefit of AAWC membership and is offered for free.

AAWC Regulatory Committee

  The AAWC Regulatory Committee has been busy working for the wound care community on new and ongoing public policy issues. In brief, the committee addresses issues by responding to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) on policy issues and regulations. Recent actions include: 1) providing feedback to Noridian Medicare Contractor (MAC) on their draft Local Coverage Decision (LCD) on skin substitutes, 2) submitting recommendations to the CMS for wound care Quality Measures for the Physician PPS reporting, 3) providing comments to NHIC Medicare contractor [MAC] concerning their draft LCD for Pneumatic Compression, and 4) providing input to the CMS on their initiative to conduct research on venous ulcer comparative effectiveness of treatments, through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to name only a few. To state up-to-date, visit the AAWC website often, and join AAWC to receive alerts that could impact your practice.

2012 Corporate Sponsors and Calls for 2013 Support

  The AAWC is thankful for the generous support of its corporate sponsors for 2012. This year’s corporate sponsors include 3M Skin and Wound Care, Advanced Tissue, KCI Medical, ConvaTec, Healthpoint Biotherapeutic, Hill-Rom, Mölnlycke Health Care US LLC, Shire Regenerative Medicine, and Smith & Nephew. The AAWC offers various sponsorship levels, and all companies providing corporate support are given membership to the AAWC Corporative Advisory Panel (CAP).

  The AAWC is the trusted not-for-profit voice in wound care and works to support industry on issues with payors and government. Participation on the CAP is vital to industry; it provides a forum for government and regulatory issues and concerns, among others, to be addressed, validated and, if within AAWC’s mission, submitted to payors and government agencies and others with AAWC’s support.

  The AAWC also shows its dedication to the wound care industry with free seminars for industry representatives. Membership benefits for sponsors include several marketing opportunities throughout the year, such as free advertising space, acknowledgements at large conferences where the AAWC is present (such as the SAWC Spring and Fall), a voice within the CAP, and recognition in its social media, newsletters, and major wound care journals (OWM and WOUNDS), which are read by tens of thousands of clinicians monthly.

  In addition to our Corporate Campaign dollars, corporate sponsors made two special contributions to SAWC Spring 2012. 3M Skin and Wound Care generously supported the AAWC Membership Meeting and Auction by donating a sampling of 3M products for the door prize. ConvaTec sponsored the “Walk for Wellness” at SAWC Spring again this past spring that helped raise $10,000 for the AAWC Global Volunteers program.

  The Association’s 2013 sponsorship campaign is underway. All corporations involved in wound care technology or products are encouraged to contact the AAWC by calling (800) 237-7285, extension 113 to become part of CAP via sponsorship.

Calling for Manuscripts by AAWC Members!

  AAWC Members are invited to obtain new or additional experience with the peer-review process and to secure a chance to be published in an indexed journal. The OWM AAWC focus issue each November highlights the AAWC; as such, we want it to be 100% AAWC-member driven!

  In line with the AAWC’s 2012–2014 strategic plans under the leadership of President Dr. Robert Snyder and the AAWC Board of Directors (see President’s Editorial, page 6), AAWC is soliciting for manuscripts on specific topics in preparation for next year’s focus issue, scheduled for publication in November 2013. Manuscripts by AAWC Members should address these topics: Diabetic Foot and Lower Extremity Wounds; Skin, Tissue, Vascular, Joint, and Other Issues of the Lower Limb; and/or Wound Prevention, Healing, and the Reduction of Lower Limb Amputations.

  Please note: it takes several months to develop your manuscript as well as to adhere to the submission and peer-review process. If you want your manuscript considered for next year’s AAWC Focus Issue of OWM, you are encouraged to being preparation early. The deadline for submission is June 1, 2013. View more details about submission at www.o-wm.com.

  Please note: AAWC Members can submit manuscripts to OWM on wound and/or ostomy topics at any time. Please note during the submission process that you are an AAWC Member so your article can be labeled as an AAWC special feature, when applicable, even if your article is selected for an issue other than November issue.

Join AAWC in its Social Media Campaign

  We know that you joined AAWC to be part of a collaborative community, so why not connect with us on one of our social media sites. Joining Facebook and LinkedIn is free and a great way to find AAWC members and those interested in wound care. Network. Post something. “Like” something. We built the pages for you.

  Social media is one way to stay in constant touch and on the pulse of the latest news without having to rely on multiple emails or websites. Enjoy AAWC news alerts at a glance, at the same time you catch up with friends and family. View photos of recent and historical events, membership highlights, reminders, alerts, and announcements. Also, watch for some fun giveaways and contests!

Join or Renew Before December 31, 2012 for a Discount on Clinician Dues

  If you are not currently a member of the AAWC, this is a reminder that clinician dues are currently 25% off (only $108.75). Financial benefits can equal savings of hundreds of dollars per year, as well as access to a wealth of professional resources and leadership opportunities available. Dues are tax-deductible. Once you are a member, you can take advantage of all of the benefits and volunteer opportunities offered. To see the full list of volunteers for all of the AAWC Task Forces and Committees or to sign up to be part of the excitement, visit https://aawconline.org/volunteer/.

  AAWC is the leader in disciplinary wound healing and tissue preservation.