Reducing Pressure Ulcers

Smart Card Revolutionizes Wound Care at NYU Langone

By Marcia Frellick

Medical teams using a cutting-edge communication and tracking tool in treating wound patients at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, now can put clinical data behind their success.

With the help of the National Institutes of Health, Harold Brem, MD, chief of the Division of Wound Healing & Regenerative Medicine in the Helen & Martin Kimmel Wound Center, found that what he developed as a “smart card” was able to prevent 93% of Stage II pressure ulcers, or bed sores, from progressing to Stages III and IV, even in the most critically ill, bed-bound hospitalized patients, and decreased limb amputation rates by 75%.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

***

An INQRI team at the University of Cincinnati is also working to prevent pressure ulcers. Tracey Yap, Ph.D., a nurse researcher and Jay Kim, Ph.D., an engineer, are leading an interdisciplinary research team which will develop a sustainable, system-wide program for pressure ulcer prevention that enhances mobility of long-term care residents. The primary goal, under nursing's leadership, is to reduce LTC facility-acquired pressure ulcer incidence by 50% using a cost-effective innovative program to increase resident active or passive movement. This team was funded by the INQRI progam this October and has just begun their work.