EUROPEAN PRESSURE ULCER ADVISORY PANEL

Another year has just begun and we are now mid-way between last year’s successful conference in Pisa and this year’s event in Le Mans. It seems like only yesterday when the idea of a European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel was first discussed. However in reality we now approach our fifth annual conference, perhaps it is now time to think of the EPUAP as a maturing, rather than a new organisation. The development of the EPUAP has been rapid, but perhaps we will soon arrive at the time to consider what difference(s), if any, the activity of the EPUAP has made to clinical practice. That the EPUAP has made a difference is perhaps most clearly seen in the development and dissemination of European guidelines for both pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. The challenge now is to assess the impact of these guidelines on the scale and characteristics of the problem of pressure ulcers around Europe. How we meet that challenge may be the next key challenge for the EPUAP.

Another impact that the EPUAP has made lies in the provision of a forum for debate about pressure ulcers. Over the past issues of this Review, we have published comments upon a recent paper by Hagisawa and Barbenel. In this issue the authors reply, the area of discussion being whether there are finite limits to our success in preventing pressure ulcer development. This is clearly an important topic and I would welcome further comment from members upon this, and other contentious issues.

Across Europe the wider political debate considers how the European Union can be enlarged to admit new members, particularly those from eastern Europe. The EPUAP also would value dialogue with the wider European community, and one of the first EPUAP Trustees, Laszlo Gulacsi, reports in this issue the first of two papers that report a wide-ranging series of pressure ulcer studies conducted in Hungary during the 1990s.

Once again, I close this introduction to the latest issue of the EPUAP Review by reminding members that all contributions upon the subject of pressure ulcers would be welcome! In addition watch out for the closing date for submission of abstracts to the Fifth Open Meeting of the EPUAP. This promises to be yet another excellent conference and the EPUAP Trustees would encourage you to consider participating by offering a free paper or poster.

Michael Clark
Editor