EUROPEAN PRESSURE ULCER ADVISORY PANEL

This is my first communication with you as the new President of EPUAP. This is indeed a strange experience for I am now being asked to write something while normally I have to beg for any attention, for in the medical world, even in 1999, there is not much interest in the problem of pressure ulcers. Sometimes this lack of interest leads me to rather aggressive behaviour, especially during meetings! However EPUAP can relax for I have now experienced an unexpected warm feeling: meeting people who were actually interested in pressure ulcers, this is something new for me!

I have already experienced both the joys and the trials that go with organising EPUAP events! Two years ago we agreed to hold the Third Open Meeting here in Amsterdam. Thankfully my colleague Maarten Lubbers is a surgeon and so has learned to behave under stress and together we knew we could make this meeting a success. But come the early summer of this year our confidence seemed misplaced! By the end of July only fifty delegates were confirmed, but we had made arrangements for 200! Picture yourself in a spacious lecture hall with the original ‘anatomical lesson’ painting by Rembrandt on the wall but with virtually nobody else. This was our nightmare. Eventually the conference attracted about 300 people, many more than we had expected. Not only did we beat our expectations for the size of the audience, it appears that the Conference Organising Committee achieved a great success in the eyes of the participants. Most parts of the meeting were evaluated as being ‘good’ while a nutrition session and the keynote lecture about radiological techniques in the detection of pressure ulcers presented by Dr Otto Chan were considered to have been ‘excellent’. The single negative comment referred to the loss of the microphones on the final morning, this was caused by a computer presentation that contained a microphone-killing virus! Oh the joys of new technologies! Finally the social aspects of the Open Meeting, largely organised by Maarten Lubbers were considered to be excellent by the delegates. So after a slow start, we did achieve a notable success in the Third Open Meeting and I would like to thank all those who were involved in the planning and delivery of this event.

One major step for the EPUAP was the launching of the three working groups looking at support surface evaluation. This initiative is covered in greater detail in this issue of the EPUAP Review. There is a lot of work to be done in these groups, and I would encourage all members to consider becoming actively involved.

I would like to offer my particular thanks to Keith Harding, the previous President of the EPUAP. His enthusiasm has helped EPUAP to have achieved a tremendous start. We have achieved a great deal in a short time: most European countries are now involved with the EPUAP while politicians and the public are becoming more aware of pressure ulcers. We have produced guidelines on both pressure sore prevention and treatment. These are all important achievements, and I thank Keith for handing over such a motivated and fast-moving EPUAP. As the new President, I am reminded that in most biological processes we follow an S-curve: a slow start, a thrilling rise but also a slow down when we have nearly reached the maximum we can achieve. I believe that we are only at the start of the rising part of such a curve and not anywhere near its end. We have a lot of work to do in the next year – planning for the Fourth Open Meeting in Pisa has already begun and I am confident that this meeting will be even more succesfull than the recent meeting in Amsterdam. I would like to think that when I hand over the reins of the EPUAP in two years time we will have continued our rapid rise up the S-curve and for that to be achieved all of us will have to be prepared to work hard to help the EPUAP facilitate improvements in the care of patients across Europe.

Have a nice millennium change, in the knowledge that the real millennium only changes between 2000 and 2001 and I look forward to seeing you in Pisa next year.

Jeen Haalboom
President EPUAP

LETTER FROM THE PAST PRESIDENT

Following the end of my term as President, it is time to reflect on the achievement of the EPUAP during the last two years and to look into the future.

With the explosion of interests in wounds and the rapid increase of societies and associations devoted to the subject it is interesting to note that in my view there is really something special about the EPUAP. Is it the subject of pressure ulcers or is it the individuals involved in this association that are the reason for its success? I suspect that it is a combination of both of these factors as unlike other meetings I attend the energy, enthusiasm and practical professional assistance to all working in this field is second to none and makes it the most enjoyable conference of the year to me.

The novel way in which we have developed our pressure ulcer prevention and treatment guidelines to setting up working groups to evaluate pressure support surfaces and the collation of data across Europe, are very important practical ways of helping to improve knowledge, understanding and implementation of strategies to deal with this important clinical problem.

In the future, the new President Dr Jeen Haalboom will shape the panel over the next two years and I am confident that we will go from strength to strength and achieve our mission of raising the profile and understanding of pressure ulcers on a European basis.

I intend to continue to be involved in the panel and attend its excellent meetings. It has been a privilege to serve as the first president of the EPUAP and I remain confident of its success in future years.

Keith Harding
Past President EPUAP