From the Editor: Time is the Greatest Innovator

  I finally did it. I set up a Twitter account and actually “tweeted” about wound care. I will save for the moment the challenge of saying anything useful in 140 characters (the equivalent of about two sentences). While I may be reasonably adept at using my computer, I only learned how to use text messaging on my phone last year, because it was the only way to keep up with my children. It seems that staying current in the practice of wound care is only half the battle. The other is staying current with technology, including social networking. This issue is devoted to helping you “keep up” with trends that affect our industry.

  For example, our cover story is “A Sneak Peak Inside Companies of Industry,” interviews executives from five companies on the Industry side. Our field is intricately linked to industry because we rely on innovation to help us improve the lives of our patients, and we want to understand the perspective of these companies.

  Mathew Livingston will discuss pain management in the wound center, providing tips and tactics for the clinician to manage an issue that may be the top priority for our patients. While we may be focused on everything else they need, our patients just want NOT to hurt. And there is always something new about the business of wound care! We are so grateful to have Kathy Schaum to keep us current. This time she will cover new guidelines about direct supervision in her article “Final 2010 Medicare Policy: Supervision in HOPDs.”

  If you are reading this and feeling smug, thinking you are already a pretty sophisticated user of technology, wait until you read Teresa A. Conner-Kerr’s article about using simulators to teach wound care! As Chair of the Physical Therapy Department at Winston-Salem State University, her department is designing a virtual rehab program with students working in a 3-D virtual environment with patients. It is a high tech approach to training in a high tech field.

  This issue of TWC makes me think of something Francis Bacon said. Bacon was an English philosopher, author, lawyer and scientist in the 17th century. He popularized what became known as the “Baconian method of scientific inquiry”—what we would call today the “scientific method.” It was Bacon who observed, “He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.” We hope this issue will provide you with some “new remedies” in the fast changing world of wound care.

TWC in 2010

  Today’s Wound Clinic will come to you 12 times in 2010. We will have bimonthly print issues (February, April, June, August, October, and December). Paying print subscribers will also receive access to the print issues in digital format. In addition to print, TWC will bring you six Online Only issues located at www.todayswoundclinic.com, which will contain excusive content available for anyone. These Online Only issues will launch in January, March, May, July, September, and November. Read our Online TOC on page 9 of this issue for more information on the January 2010 Online Only issue.

  Caroline E. Fife, Co-Editor of TWC, cfife@intellicure.com.