ETRS SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING
26–28 September 2007, Southampton, UK

Dear Friends,

It is an honour and a pleasure to host the next annual meeting of the ETRS. There are a number of exciting events occurring in the world of wound healing currently. I also know that the hardboiled clinician continues to grumble when the healing is delayed of what looks to be a simple uncomplicated wound. And some scientists look even more introspective when a hot-off the-shelf innovation provokes immediate admiration from all but then the process of it being used in the coalface appears to be insurmountable. Over and beyond, there are ‘the managers’ charged with the unenviable task of making clinical management as well as R&D cost effective. Does this conjure up a vision of a ‘pea soup fog’ that was described in clinical detail by Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Homes series? What is the way out for us wound healers?

We must measure and make the difference. Many of us are used to measuring wound sizes, colour and so on. But the arena of wound measurements is much wider: biochemical, cell and molecular biology, vascular, mechanical as well as measurements of form. And how do these measurements stack up with healing difficulties of wounds related to different organs? Does one size fit all? I am sure not. The philosophy of the next meeting is the ‘wound measurements – the conduit between the laboratory and the clinic’.

You will have three exciting days to present your innovative solutions, knotty problems, to challenge and to be challenged, all with an aim of improving wound science and therefore its management. An exciting venue has been selected for this meeting and it will be an experience of a lifetime.

Southampton (in the New Forest area of Hampshire) is very attractive in September. You can expect to hear from exciting young innovators as well as the experienced clinician scientist. Join us to make the coming of age of the ETRS a unique event for all of us.

Raj Mani
Congress President
ETRS 2007