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EWMA2008
Presented at the
18 th Conference
of the European
Wound Management
Association,
14-16 May 2008,
Lisbon, Portugal
Eucomed – Advanced Wound Care Sector (AWCS)
Positioning of
advanced wound care
Abstract
Background: For companies in the wound care
sector, the lack of a common voice in Europe has
hindered the visibility and promotion of the industry
to political and policy decision-makers, and
the creation of a regional awareness of the issues
around chronic wounds. With the mechanisms
of healthcare systems being different within the
EU Member States, a common EU approach and
collaboration within the industry is essential.
Strategy: The industry solution has been to create
a sector group for Advanced Wound Care (AWCS)
under the auspices of Eucomed (European Medical
Technology Industry Association). This sector
group will also work in active partnership with
the European Wound Management Association
(EWMA).
Objective: The overall objective of the sector
group is to raise the profile of advanced wound
care, and bring it into the context of current and
future social healthcare issues under debate.
Goals:
Short term goals (less than 1 year)
n Present a ‘Burden-of-Illness Paper’ on chronic
wounds in Europe
n Present an article around ‘Evidence in
Wound Care’
n Participate in a ‘Clinical Working Group’ to
evaluate outcome measures other than just
healing efficacy
n Arrange a ‘Wound Care Session’ in Brussels
n Initiate a ‘Data Collection Programme’ of
wound care epidemiology in selected countries
n Position the ‘Best Evidence Standpoint’ to
the 3Ps (payers, practitioners and patients)
Medium term goals (1-3 years)
n Educational activities about health economics,
cost-effectiveness and patient related
outcomes
n Continuation of the ‘Data Collection Programme’
to a number of European countries
n Scoping and defining the trends within ‘Primary
vs. Secondary Care’ (Cost consequence
analysis)
Long term goals (2-5 years)
n To promote and get acceptance of ‘Innovation
in Wound Care’
Conclusion: Modern wound management is complex
and could have a huge impact on a patient’s
everyday life. Therefore it is important that all
involved parties work together to minimize the
patient suffering and to optimize health care costs
for the entire society.
INTRODUCTION
Eucomed (www.eucomed.org) is a trade organization
for medical technology companies and
national associations in Europe. It is based in
Brussels with a broad network and many various
focus groups within e.g. patient safety, regulatory
affairs, economic affairs, home care and now also
advanced wound care.
Modern wound care is complex and furthermore
supported by opaque and heterogeneous
funding and reimbursement systems. The health
care sector is full of ongoing “projects”, “official
reports” and “reorganizations”. They have their
place, but much of tomorrow’s success can only
come from wrestling with real and concrete issues
like: What is evidence? How should evidence be
measured? What is the value proposition of a new
technology? Etc.
The purpose of this article is to give a description
of the fruitful collaboration between practitioners,
represented by EWMA and the wound
care industry (represented by companies from
Eucomed). Group members: Hans Lundgren
(Chairman, Mölnlycke Health Care), Johannes
G. Böttrich (B. Braun), Kristina Jensen (Coloplast),
Ameer Ally (ConvaTec), David Hibbitt
(Covidien), Julie Bjerregaard (EWMA), Finn
Gottrup (EWMA), Luc Gryson (EWMA), Henrik
J. Nielsen (EWMA), Laurent Metz (Johnson &
Science, Practice and Education
�
Hans Lundgren
Medical Director
Mölnlycke
Sweden
Hans.Lundgren@
molnlycke.com
EWMA Journal 2008 vol 8 no 3 5