Sharing Knowledge With Colleagues Near and Far

I write this to you from 37,000 feet in the air over the Atlantic Ocean as I am returning from the World Union of Wound Healing Societies meeting held this week in Florence, Italy. The meeting is held only every 4 years and in different places around the world. As unlikely as it may seem, health care professionals from all over the world got together to share their approaches to helping patients with wounds. At this meeting there were 4,000 people in attendance discussing everything from health economics and nursing techniques to genetics and gene therapy of wounds. The sharing of information was incredible and noteworthy. There were more than 850 posters on exhibit in the poster hall including 3 from our wound center. There were lectures and workshops from early in the morning until late each day of the meeting. It was truly amazing to visit with international friends and meet new friends from around the world who are struggling with the same problems treating wounds that we have in Montgomery, Alabama. Attending a meeting like this should convince anyone that it truly is a small world in which we live and, despite cultural differences, health issues are pretty much the same everywhere. 

Being a part of sharing information with international colleagues is truly inspiring. Not all peoples and cultures think sharing information is a good thing. I have been places where information is considered power, and the more information you keep for yourself, the more power you have. Several years ago after a wound care lecture I had given in Africa, a lady asked me why I came all the way to her country to give away my power. She was amazed that I would share my knowledge of wound management with people anywhere much less in her country. 

Fortunately, I was able to come up with a reasonable answer by saying I was not giving my knowledge away; I was sharing my “power” with her and others to make us equal in our ability to help their people. I could not help all of her people, but if she took my knowledge, she could be part of helping her people. That seemed a new thought to her, but she was satisfied. She did not miss a single lecture the entire duration of the wound course we were teaching. At this meeting in Florence everyone was freely sharing their “power” with each other to make each of us better at managing the epidemic of wounds worldwide. 

Dr. Marco Romanelli, a dermatologist from Pisa, Italy, and a member of our Editorial Board, was in charge of the meeting. I know he has been working tirelessly on this meeting since it was awarded to Italy more than 4 years ago. He and his multiple committees are to be highly commended for the excellent meeting and programs they were able to provide for us. I was asked to present and comoderate one session in which the speakers were from England, France, Italy, and the United States. Bringing all of us together to talk about the same topic in the same room in a foreign country for most of us required hours of work and coordination. Meetings such as this don’t just happen, and the Italians are to be congratulated for their success. Providing a forum for the sharing of information is a unique opportunity and an honor in which to participate. We are able to provide a small platform though manuscripts published in Wounds by international authors. I would hope we could develop more dialogue and sharing among all of our authors as a way of learning better how each of us approaches wound management. Perhaps this will be possible through the Wounds social media opportunities and sharing of video case presentations. Part of being a medical professional in any field is the willingness to closely cooperate with others in the health care field. By sharing our “power” with one another, we all become stronger.