From the Editor: A Global Warmth

  This issue of OWM is dedicated to wound, ostomy, and continence practitioners around the world. The contributions this month – as every month – come from clinicians who have taken time from their busy, challenging practices to share insights into universal dilemmas. From the UK: What is it about silver products that keep them at the forefront of study (and sometimes controversy)? From Brazil: What is the best dressing to secure peripheral catheters? From Japan: Is there an easier way for patients to don (and subsequently, more frequently use) compression stockings? From Italy: Can we improve on the assessment and ultimately the treatment of peristomal skin disorders?   It may be tempting for some readers to dismiss contributions or research that did not originate in their own country, believing that reported findings or observations do not “apply to them.” However, such thinking can blind a person to the ingenuity inherent in acknowledging a problem (in the patient or in the pocketbook) and seeking a practical solution. The World Wound Care Alliance of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC) was established to bring multidisciplinary teams to developing countries to teach wound care but I am willing to bet that program participants will learn as much as they teach from their “students.”

  Humans all over the world are more similar than they are different. There are universal considerations in getting a patient to use a recommended device, to realizing that despite all cost-effectiveness studies cheaper may be better, to accepting (Michael Moore’s Sicko aside) that the US healthcare system doesn’t perform all the medical research in the world or have all the answers regarding quality care. At the very least, every patient, regardless of country or culture, offers an opportunity for professional and personal growth, particularly when treatment occurs under less than optimal circumstances or with less than optimal resources. We may be ethnocentrically prone to smugly pat ourselves on our collective North American or European backs and applaud our achievements when we learn that India’s first International Medical, Healthcare and Hospital Equipment Trade Fair, as well as Colombia’s first wound care course (the latter featured in this month’s “My Scope of Practice”), were organized but a year ago. We need to keep in mind that while “literature” on wound care and related topics dates back to the earliest civilizations, wound care as a separate discipline is a fairly new concept. Our precious SAWC is only 20 years old; the World Union meeting is in its infancy.

  Because wound, ostomy, and continence care providers, even in “advanced” medical settings, still struggle for recognition (not kudos. Acceptance), we must listen to all the voices. We must foster a universal proliferation of knowledge, a global warmth of collective experience. Plus, because we travel among the countries of the world with ease, sharing illness along with industry, we must be vigilant and responsive to problems of other peoples that may impact our national health.

  The AAWC program affords opportunities for worldwide sharing. Ostomy Wound Management, in addition to our publication partnership with the Journal of Wound Care (UK), has an international open-door submission policy to encourage non-English speaking authors to work with us toward publication. The fruits of that labor are evident in this special issue.

  To quote a favorite movie of mine (as I am apt to do), “Americans can no longer afford to pretend they live in a great society.” In truth, it isn’t that we aren’t great (we are!). It is that we are not alone in our quest for excellence. Sometimes that excellence may manifest in milligrams of sequestration that translate into more advanced dressing capabilities. Sometimes that excellence presents as a patient confidently applying compression stockings. No matter the language, let’s all say it in unison: Whatever works.

This article was not subject to the Ostomy Wound Management peer-review process.