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Ninth Annual Meeting, which took place at the end of August this
year, in Berlin, was a great success exemplified by the quality
of the presentations and the attendance of more than 500 delegates
from 30 countries. At this meeting we met with our Corporate Sponsors
in a special session (photograph on page 66) to discuss the progress
that EPUAP has made and to receive their feedback as to how they
would like to see the rôle of the EPUAP develop in the future.
A report of the meeting by Tracy Cowan, Deputy Editor of the Journal
of Wound Care (which was first published in the Journal of Wound
Care, in October) is reproduced in this issue. A sad event, which
occurred at the same time as the Berlin meeting, was the sudden
death of Graham Philip Nicolson who was to have participated in
the meeting. An obituary published in the National Pressure Ulcer
Advisory Panel newsletter is reproduced in this issue.
Above:
Traditional German musicians and dancers at the Berlin
Reception, in August.
One
of our new major projects to start in the near future is the updating
of our Pressure Ulcer Prevention Guidelines. These were originally
written in 1998, at the beginning of the EPUAP, and have been translated
into a number of European languages, and distributed to thousands
of individuals who are involved with pressure ulcers. We are encouraging
stakeholders from a number of organisations including members from
Industry who are interested in being part of this initiative. We
anticipate that the new prevention guidelines will be accepted by
the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel in USA. Formal collaboration
between the two Societies was discussed in Berlin and has already
been agreed. Given the volume of new evidence and the requirement
to review each study in depth, a postgraduate coordinator for this
project will be needed. Thus the EPUAP is in the process of a major
fundraising effort to support this important initiative and we anticipate
that the new guidelines will be completed and presented in 2008.
If you are interested in becoming a stakeholder or supporting this
project financially please
contact myself at the Business Office, or Carol Dealey, our new
presidentelect. An application to become a stakeholder is included
in this issue.
Berlin: Special Session with Sponsors.
Plans are well underway for our Tenth Anniversary meeting, which
will be held in Oxford, England, 30 August – 1 September 2007.
The theme is ‘Ten years of progress, the present and
future in Pressure Ulcer prevention and management.’
In addition to an excellent scientific programme a number of unique
social events will be incorporated as part of the programme. An
announcement and registration form is in this issue and we would
encourage early registration (as well as prompt abstract submission)
as we anticipate a large number of attendees at this Anniversary
meeting. Part of the programme will be a joint session with our
Japanese colleagues from the Japanese Society of Pressure Ulcers
who have attended and supported our EPUAP meetings throughout the
years.
I would personally like to wish all of our members and supporters
a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you in Oxford in August.
Dr
George W. Cherry
Secretary / Treasurer
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