EUROPEAN  TISSUE  REPAIR  SOCIETY

NEWS FROM SOUTHAMPTON
Raj Mani – University of Southampton

We have been beavering away in Southampton (at the scientific stuff) while others have been at meetings, the Olympics and so on. If this raises any eyebrows – you only have to look at the changes both in the University of Southampton and of course, the campus of Southampton University Hospitals Trust (SUHT). Everywhere there is building activity and repair work and this includes the main arteries connecting the city – similar to what takes place when wounds heal. Perhaps these healing efforts were indicated. On the academic front, the raison d’etre of our research activities is to examine the influence of environment on the disease process so ably influenced by the work of some of our MRC colleagues who showed that many adult diseases have fetal origins. Again, what has this got to do with wound healing? One of our main clinical problems is diabetes and to deal with this multidisciplinary teams have been set up under the guidance of Peter Betts (who influenced the National Service Framework in Diabetes). A Diabetic Foot team put together by Cliff Shearman with Andrew Krentz, includes Graham Bowen and Helen Barton are making things occur across the classical divide between primary and secondary care. There are to be other appointments soon. A few lines from Graham Bowen follow.

Diabetes Foot Protection Team –
Bridging the gap between Primary and Secondary Care in Southampton

The need was recognised for a Diabetes Foot service to provide fast access, reliable assessment, as well as education and prompt treatment for foot emergencies in patients with diabetes mellitus. This will lead to a reduction in foot complications, and have impacts on inpatient stay and treatment.

The Diabetes Foot Protection Team comprises a Podiatrist (Graham Bowen) and a Diabetes Specialist Nurse (Helen Barton). The aim is to work to provide a seamless service across Primary and Secondary for foot services in diabetes care.

The Key areas that the team will focus on are:

1. Improving the diagnosis and management of the foot in Diabetes, in keeping with national standards Diabetes NSF and Diabetes NICE guidelines.
2. Providing fast and appropriate referral to secondary care, coupled with collaborative working to reducing the length of hospital stay of patients with diabetes with a foot complication.
3. Once discharged, to co-ordinate care in Primary care to aim to reduce readmission.
4. Improving the Diabetes Foot health education of patients and the education of health care professionals regarding the foot and Diabetes.

There is a continued commitment to research and this is where the VMRG comes in. It really is an extremely exciting time within Diabetes foot services in Southampton.

Graham Bowen,
Chief II Podiatrist – Specialist in Diabetes
Southampton Primary Care Trust

So what are they doing about Leg Ulcer management in Southampton?

Once again, Southampton City Primary Care Trust has appointed a Leg Ulcer Specialist Nurse Denise Privett to head a team of two dedicated specialist nurses who are based at the 3rd Age Centre near the Royal South Hants Hospital. This group headed by Denise Privett offers access to all GPs and Community Nurses giving them expert advice on diagnosis, management working closely with Raj Mani and Cliff Shearman (SUHT).

Denise has been working for about a year now and reports remarkable progress.

And within SUHT, we have Lynn Taylor and Greg Wain, both experts in Tissue Viability working within a team framework.

And on the research front?

The Vascular Medicine Research Group was set up with a pump priming grant from the Strategic Research Initiative of SUHT. The Group comprises Andrew Krentz (Consultant Diabetologist), Cliff Shearman (Professor of Vascular Surgery) and Raj Mani. And wound healing is one of the main foci of this Group. There are a number of projects, all multidisciplinary, in different stages of development.

Coming back to the coal face, we need to have reliable ways of picking up and managing vascular complications but even better we plan to work to modify the well known risk factors associated with the complications of diabetes of which vascular disease is a major one.

Hence the title of the forthcoming ETRS FOCUS meeting in March 2005 is: ‘Diabetic Vascular Disease and Wound Complications’.

• The major meeting interest will be on the lower extremities, we will also look at the other vascular systems and the inter-relationships with wound healing.
• Measurements? – of course that’s what it will be about – there will be a number of workshops focused on measurement – a feature of Southampton.

Why come to Southampton?

Southampton has a gleaming new city front to it at West Quay. Our roads have all been done up and we even have new grounds for football and cricket. Both at SUHT and the University of Southampton, radical developments are moving apace. Come and see us in March 2005. We look forward to welcoming you in Southampton.

Raj Mani
15 September 2004