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Hope for Health and Healing in 2022
One year ago, this page contained a message of hope and a wish that 2021 would bring an increased appreciation for the science we desperately need.1 That wish remains as heartfelt now as it was then because the end of this pandemic remains elusive and because the millions of health care providers who have worked behind a mask to provide care deserve all the help they can get. When we think about science, our minds usually ponder new technologies, medications, or expansive, expensive, or complicated treatments or interventions. However, some of the most critical and enduring innovations to help us help patients are neither high-tech nor fancy and expensive.
The development of hypoallergenic, disposable skin barriers that adhered to irritated skin and helped start healing inaugurated an era of dramatic improvements for persons with a stoma as well as health care professionals helping them improve their quality of life. A low-tech, low-cost treatment called Kegel exercises, first described in 1948, continues to help women who are incontinent. The evacuated blood collection tube, invented around the same time, continues to be exceptionally useful and convenient. Self-adhering bandages are the go-to for many sticky (or, more aptly, non-sticking) patient care situations. Positioning wedges can save our back, our day, and the patient’s skin. Pain scales enable the easy (and painless!) assessment and management of pain. Finally, the Braden scale has helped prevent millions of pressure injuries over the past 20 years.
Many of these decidedly not-so-sexy and low-tech innovations require research, and research requires time and money. Time is a precious commodity, especially today, and money for these types of studies may be challenging to find when the research does not result in a product that can be marketed. Enter our glimmer of hope for 2022!
The White House budget for this year’s National Institutes of Health funding would, for the first time after 18 years of sometimes double-digit declines, constitute an increase in program-level funding.2 As of this writing, it is unknown if Congress will approve the budget, but there is hope. Moreover, as of 2020, Wound Healing and Care is one of the 298 listed research/disease area categories.3 To be sure, the amount of program-level funding requested for 2022 is a tiny percentage of the overall budget—0.06% to be exact—but at least wound care is now on the map, and we certainly could use the $172 million requested! Of course, other research/disease categories, such as urologic diseases, colorectal cancer, aging, pediatrics, and comparative effectiveness research, can also be considered for funding. Just think of the possibilities!
How about learning more about pain management strategies such as music to develop evidence-based, non-pharmaceutical strategies to help patients during painful wound procedures?4 Will we finally see the day when the practice of repositioning patients with a certain Braden score every 2 hours is either considered evidence-based or abolished for longer time intervals in many patients?5 Talk about a low-tech, enduring innovation that would improve the quality of life for patients and nurses alike! We can hope, can’t we?
Wishing you, our readers and the patients under your care, a year of hope and healing.
The opinions and statements expressed herein are specific to the respective authors and not necessarily those of Wound Management & Prevention or HMP Global. This article was not subject to the Wound Management & Prevention peer-review process.
References
1. van Rijswijk L. A new year to appreciate science. Wound Manag Prev. 2021;67(1):6.
2. Congressional Research Service. National Institute of Health (NIH) funding FY1996-FY2022. Updated June 29, 2021. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R43341.pdf
3. National Center for Health Statistics. Estimates of Funding for Various Research, Condition, and Disease Categories (RCDC). Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. June 25, 2021. Accessed November 28, 2021. https://report.nih.gov/funding/categorical-spending#/
4. Cheng H, Breitbart G, Giordano L, Richmand D, Wong G. Music in the wound care center: effects on anxiety levels and blood pressure measurement in patients receiving standard care. Wound Manag Prev. 2021;67(4):16–22.
5. Gillespie BM, Walker RM, Latimer SL, et al. Repositioning for pressure injury prevention in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020;6(6):CD009958. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009958.pub3
6. Maguire J, Hastings D, Adams M et al. Development and implementation of an individualized turning program for pressure injury prevention using sensor technology in nursing homes: a quality improvement program. Wound Manag Prev. 2021;67(11):12–25.
