European Wound Management Association
The European Wound Management Association (EWMA) was founded in 1991. The association works to promote the advancement of education and research into native epidemiology, pathology, diagnosis, prevention and management of wounds of all aetiologies.
EWMA is an umbrella organisation linking wound management associations across Europe and a multidisciplinary group bringing together individuals and organisations interested in wound management. Currently, the association bridges 46 Cooperating Organisations (national wound care associations in Europe) and, in addition, partners with a considerable number of wound and wound related associations in and outside of Europe. Furthermore, EWMA has a large number of individual members from all over Europe.
EWMA works to reach its objectives by being an educational resource, organising conferences, contributing to international projects related to wound management, actively supporting the implementation of existing knowledge within wound management and providing information on all aspects of wound management.
Objectives
- To promote the advancement of education and research into epidemiology, pathology, diagnosis, prevention and management of wounds of all aetiologies.
- To arrange conferences on aspects of wound management throughout Europe.
- To arrange multi-centre, multi-disciplinary training courses on topical aspects of wound healing.
- To create a forum for networking for all individuals and organisations interested in wound management
EWMA Journal
The EWMA Journal is the official journal of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA). Issues are published in January, May and October.
EWMA Journal is CINAHL indexed and provides peer-reviewed original scientific articles, reviews, clinical information, and information about development in wound healing and management across Europe. The Journal also functions as a communication tool between EWMA, its members and the EWMA Cooperating Organisations. It serves as a means of distributing information and details of initiatives across national borders, thus supporting EWMA’s aim of advancing wound healing within Europe. As EWMA shares the vision of an ‘open access’ philosophy, the Journal is freely available online.
It is distributed to EWMA members and to members of national wound healing organisations in Europe, as well as to a wider audience via the internet. As a result, each issue of the EWMA Journal is distributed to 12-13,000 nurses, doctors and other health care professionals who have a special interest in wound care.
EWMA Patient Outcome Group
The EWMA Patient Outcome Group has a clinical scientific platform, including both clinicians and representatives from companies working within wound healing.
Discussions and objectives of the group touch upon topics such as structure of treatment as well as more traditional clinical trials and approval and reimbursement of wound care products.
Primary objectives of the group are to:
1. Identify barriers:
- With a starting point in the current debate on evidence in wound healing and the Cochrane levels of evidence, the group will define the primary barriers (as experienced by clinicians and companies) related to creating and implementation of evidence based guidelines in wound healing.
2. Propose guidelines for clinical data collection:
- The objective will be to define how existing guidelines for clinical trials (e.g. RCTs or more “practical” studies (real life studies etc.)) can be adapted to wound management, e.g. by including other end points such as number of dressing changes, health economics, QOL, education of staff and structure of treatment.
3. Participate in the public debate / policy making:
- The working group should present a common viewpoint on clinical trials of wound management products in relation to the debate on both national and European level. A primary goal will be to influence the decision making processes concerning approval and reimbursement of wound management products. EWMA will act as shareholder and work to influence the national agendas in order to put chronic wounds on the agenda.
- A central European HTA unit is assumed to be established. The working group should approach involved institutions in order to present the work and conclusions of the group in relation to evidence in HTA of wound management products.
4. Create and implement consensus:
- Other interested parties (clinicians, companies, reimbursement authorities, European collaborative groups and institutions) should be involved in order to create consensus within the area. A pan European consensus with a national implementation strategy has been proposed.