ETRS – The Mature Society

The ETRS meeting was this year fused with the world union of wound healing societies meeting in Paris and was co-hosted with three other European groups or societies (EWMA, EPUAP, French WHS). What benefit could be drawn from this experience? A quick analysis of the pros and cons of this meeting can us help for the future:

• The time devoted to speakers in pure research was dramatically increased compared to a normal ETRS meeting. During the Paris meeting, which lasted six full days, more than 150 oral presentations concerning research were given.
  
• Other formats of exchanges were developed. Ten thematic sessions were proposed, and, due to the ability to invite outstanding speakers, some of these sessions were considered as the best ever given.
  
• A new education course was also developed in Paris. This six-hour course in fundamentals was a successful session, rich in information for beginners, nurses or even specialists who needed, for many reasons, to refresh their knowledge or acquire recent data in fundamental research. All participants were enthusiastic about this educational programme, which will be largely and freely diffused on the web site, offering to everybody who wants a basis in fundamental data.

The European Tissue Repair Society is considered as a very scientific, serious and independent society. The price to pay for this reputation is still a tendency to be considered as a snobbish, distant and self-opinionated group of super-experts speaking an esoteric language, which is contrary to the image of the participants who join this group. They feel perfectly understood, find new ideas, develop interesting contacts during the annual or the focus ETRS meetings. They find a source of energy to carry on research. We are very concerned about the financial possibilities for young colleagues to attend these meetings. Bursaries will be established, and special rates for students will be maintained. The participation in our annual meetings rarely exceeds 400 participants, and this must be increased. The quality of the presentations, the high academic level of the discussions, and the excellence of the participants have done more for this group than a simple arithmetic count of numbers would indicate, but we can certainly do better in this direction.

Tissue repair, and specifically skin repair, needs an intense collaboration between clinicians and fundamental researchers. More and more, the ETRS has to develop opportunities for discussion and exchanges, and needs to promote the formation of working groups on specific topics. These groups have to create standards, to think collectively about the rules to follow in terms of ethics, reimbursements and the limits of use for new devices and products. The respective value of clinical cases, retrospective studies, observational studies and randomised, controlled trials has to be weighed when speaking about efficacy and reimbursement. At present there is a significant discrepancy between various European countries with regard to reimbursement, and one of our roles will be to harmonise the possibilities of appropriate treatment for patients wherever they live in this recently enlarged European Community.

Experimental and clinical studies also require intense research of funding, both institutional and private; institutional funding is difficult to obtain due to the administrative requirements. It needs time and patience, but also sometimes a precise knowledge of the vagaries of the funding organisations, especially the European Commissions.

Private funding has sometimes been suspected of being linked to marketing approaches, but thanks to this permanent pressure, much progress has been made in knowledge of wound healing, resulting in the development of exciting new devices.

It is now evident that the ETRS is a privileged melting pot where these populations can meet, exchange and develop collectively new programmes for the future. The ETRS needs to promote these exchanges, to offer to the new countries joining the European Community innovative solutions to treat properly the half billion of patients potentially concerned in wound healing.

The ETRS has to be known and represented in each of these countries and to offer to these new members an attractive face, especially for educated colleagues, researchers and medical specialists in wound healing. In order to attract these new members, we have collectively to multiply initiatives such as the educational tool, a kind of minimal knowledge kit in fundamental data. This tool should be diffused everywhere in Europe with the aim of influencing the content of educational programmes in all medical and paramedical schools, under the auspices of the Society.

One basic question frequently asked by newcomers is ‘Why tissue repair and not only skin repair?’ We can observe each year how much the new solutions of tissue reconstruction are not restricted to the surface of the body. For several years we have seen an explosion of long line of new techniques: those which permit the covering of sophisticated structures like muscles and bones; the development of gliding structures over tendons; the promotion of granulation tissue without promoting fibrosis; the stimulation of nerve sprouting, the availability of new interactive dressings; and the anticipation of products which can regulate wound processes biochemically. Reconstruction of tissues is a reality, and will certainly be more and more developed in the near future, thanks to fundamental and clinical research, carried out collectively by a multiple group of specialists fusing their original varied specialities into one unique speciality, wound healing.

Luc Téot MD, PhD
President of the ETRS