New Products and Industry News

Expert speaks about Why Wound Care?^™

Attendees at the National Student Nurses Association Spring Conference in Orlando, FL, March 30–April 3, 2016, learned about the Why Wound Care?™ (WWC?) initiative through a series of presentations delivered by Diane L. Krasner, PhD, RN, CWCN, CWS, MAPWCA, FAAN, a wound care nurse and leading expert in the field. Dr. Krasner’s presentation, “Jump Start Your Career as a Wound Care Nurse,” targeted nursing students; her presentation, “Filling the Need for Specialized Wound Care Nurses,” addressed nursing school faculty.

Launched in 2015 by HMP Communications Holdings, LLC, the Why Wound Care?™ campaign was developed to educate nursing students about the growing need for — and critical importance of — specialized wound care nurses and encourages nursing graduates to pursue additional training to become wound care certified. 

For more information, visit: www.whywoundcare.com. 

Human trials of liquid to stop bleeding commence

Arch Therapeutics (Framingham, MA) began the first human tests of a self-assembling molecule designed to conform to the shape of an irregular wound and stop bleeding within seconds. The trial of the AC5 Surgical Hemostatic Device will involve 45 patients in Western Europe. The patients all will have at least 2 dermatological lesions to be removed surgically; one of the wounds will be treated with the product, while the other will receive a control treatment. Ten of the patients will be on blood thinners in order to test how well the device performs in those patients. 

The company is targeting Europe before the United States because it believed the product could be brought to market quicker. The company plans to start the US regulatory process sometime this quarter.

For more information, visit: www.archtherapeutics.com. 

UK wound care business secures exclusive use of technology

Crawford Healthcare (Knutsford, UK), an international advanced wound and skin care company, made a deal with advanced materials developer Exciton Technologies (Edmonton, AB, Canada) for the exclusive rights to its Silver Oxysalt Technology. The deal helps establish Crawford’s leadership in the global health care market in terms of aggressive antimicrobial wound treatment, a major component in the fight against antibiotic resistance. Also, this transaction will enable the company to expand the use of the technology to other wound dressings and formats that are more readily used in the treatment of chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers and pressure ulcers.

For more information, visit: www.crawfordhealthcare.com.

New app navigates the wound dressing landscape

DermaRite (North Bergen, NJ) released its Interactive Wound Dressing Selection Guide, an interactive catalog app that allows users to input wound information to see which of the company’s dressings are appropriate for that presentation. Available for iPhone, iPad, and Android, the guide can provide an on-the-job reference or a way to learn more about the available wound dressings.

Designed as an educational resource tool, the app is part of Healing In D.E.P.T.H.™, the company’s holistic skin and wound care program for facilities. Created to address the primary areas of skin and wound care, each of the program’s 4 steps supports the next, thereby providing caregivers with the tools they need to support healing from without and within.

For more information, visit: www.dermarite.com. 

“Compassionate use” expansion approved

 Avita Medical Ltd (Northridge, CA and Cambridge, UK), a regenerative medicine company specializing in the treatment of wounds and skin defects, received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a second expansion of its Compassionate Use Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) program for ReCell®.

This IDE supplement allows the company to increase the total number of patients allowed for clinical evaluation of ReCell by 50%, bringing the total number of patients who have insufficient healthy skin available for standard skin grafting of their injury from 24 to 36. The IDE allows the application of the product beyond burns to larger, more serious defects than those studied in the US pivotal trial. Under the compassionate use protocol, investigational use of the product may be granted in cases where the patient’s treating physician believes no suitable alternative treatment is available.

For more information, visit: www.avitamedical.com.