EDITORIAL

This has been a busy year for the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel – a successful conference held in Tampere, Finland along with a new guideline on nutrition and pressure ulcers mark just two of the year’s highlights. What does the New Year hold in store? First of all EPUAP are one of the co-hosts of the 2nd World Union of Wound Healing Societies conference to be held in Paris over six days in July 2004 (8th to the 13th). This will be the major wound event during the year and sees a coming together of several European wound organisations. It is expected that several thousand delegates will attend the Paris meeting – such numbers may be usual within many major medical conferences but this concentration of professions and skills within a single wound meeting is unique. What can EPUAP members expect from our participation within the World Union event? Although we are a co-host the main programme has been developed by the World Union committee and not by the EPUAP. This means that although pressure ulcers will be represented in depth during the conference there may be fewer opportunities for EPUAP projects to be reported within the main sessions. The potential lack of a focus upon the actions of the EPUAP will of course be offset by the opportunity to network with colleagues from almost all parts of the world!

Another project in gestation during 2004 will be a pressure ulcer textbook prepared by the EPUAP and to be published by Springer-Verlag. This text will draw together the experience of EPUAP members to create a key publication on all aspects of pressure ulceration. Over the first few months of 2004 the Editors of this new book will be working with the chapter authors to bring the text to completion. A publication date has not yet been set but it is hoped that you will be able to obtain copies of this EPUAP text around the end of 2004.

This issue of the EPUAP Review illustrates how EPUAP members have been helping to develop new evidence based consensus regarding support surface use in Italy. The article concludes with a call for members to get involved with this project by sharing their national and regional guidelines on support surfaces. There are now many guidelines available to help shape both pressure ulcer prevention and treatment; but which ones are worth adopting? Formal evaluation of pressure ulcer guidelines will also be a focus within this newsletter over the coming year; so watch out for how well your national guidelines compare with others!

Michael Clark
Editor