Griffith University has been awarded a $2.5 million National Health and Medical Research Grant to develop a Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) to improve delivery of acute wound care services in hospital.
The Wiser Wound Care CRE will focus on three high-volume, high-risk and high-cost acute wounds occurring in hospitals — pressure injuries (PI), surgical wounds and intravascular device (IVD).
“Almost all the 11.3 million hospital admissions in Australia each year involve one or more of these wounds,’’ says research lead Professor Wendy Chaboyer, head of Griffith University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery.
“Wounds compromise skin integrity, leaving people physically vulnerable and at risk of developing healthcare acquire complications such as various forms of infection.”
She said wound care practices had been largely overlooked, even where good quality evidence exists to stop low-value and inappropriate practices.
“Compounding this, there is a lack of robust evidence in some key areas of wound care. Our CRE will tackle this lack of quality evidence by undertaking high-quality clinical trials to provide evidence of efficacy and cost effectiveness in priority areas.
“Our research program will generate and implement evidence-based wound care practices and identify and de-implement low-value wound care practices, in the hospital setting to improve the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of wound care. We will also train future wound-care researchers and develop national and international wound care collaborations.”
TheCREmultidisciplinary team of researcherscomprisesfive renowned nurse researchers, three internationally recognised physicians,a health economist and a statistician.
“This health care team approach will enable the seamless translation of high impact research outcomes into policy and practice for optimal delivery of wound care services in hospitals,’’ ProfessorChaboyersaid.
