As Co-Chair of the NPUAP Education Committee it is my pleasure to invite all clinicians to the NPUAP Biennial Conference in New Orleans from March 10 to 11, 2017. Featured topics will include best practices for staging and treatment, pressure injury recidivism, and pressure injury as a quality measure. In addition to these timely topics, NPUAP will host a full day featuring national experts who will discuss terminal ulceration, skin failure, and unavoidable pressure injury. Attendees are invited to submit cases that illustrate these lesions, and a select number of submissions will be presented for discussion with the group.

Addressing the Challenges of Skin Failure

The phenomena of terminal skin injury and skin failure is fraught with challenges of terminology which is often confusing, and experts do not always agree on diagnostic criteria and classification. Panelists include Mary Brennan, Diane Langemo, Karen Kennedy, and myself. Stella Mandl from CMS will also be on the panel to offer a regulatory perspective. Elizabeth Ayello will moderate this session. Following this panel, Dr. Gary Sibbald will present a keynote on skin perfusion, and I will take the podium to discuss palliative care for pressure injuries and other chronic wounds.

If you would like to present a case related to skin failure, unavoidable or terminal injury, please send a case summary to me at jlevinemd@shcny.com. Preference will be given to cases with good quality photographs. Presentation of each case will last 10 minutes followed by 5 minutes of discussion.

NPUAP is also accepting abstracts. Present your research findings on any relevant topic related to pressure injury to your colleagues and peers in this prestigious meeting. The deadline to submit abstracts is Friday, December 16, 2016. Applicants will be notified of the status of their abstract’s acceptance by January 17, 2017.

Please click here to learn more and to submit your abstract:

About the Author
Dr. Jeffrey Levine is a board certified internist and geriatrician with over thirty years of experience in wound care in hospitals, nursing homes, and home care environments. He is Associate Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and has a hospital based wound care practice at the Center for Advanced Wound Care at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. He received his fellowship training in geriatrics at the Mount Sinai Medical Center where he began his interest in chronic wounds. He is an elected board member of the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP).

Dr. Levine’s interest in pressure ulcers began in the 1980s during his geriatric training when he noticed that many of his nursing home patients had pressure ulcers but there was little reliable information on treatment methods. This motivated him to study not just prevention and treatment of chronic wounds, but to delve into the rich history of wound care over the centuries. He has since published a number of articles on historical topics ranging from wound care in ancient Egypt through the 20th Century.