A niche within a niche

I recently attended the 2013 National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) conference in Houston. My kudos to the Planning Committee for the lovely venue and accoutrements and some deliciously intriguing sessions. The focus of the conference was “Deep Tissue Injury: State of the Science.” I was most fascinated by presentations by Dr. Amit Gefen, and his Deep Tissue Injury from a Bioengineering Point of View Dr. Gefen an engineer who, among his other accomplishments (for one thing, he has published several times in OWM), creates skin tissue to test the effects of pressure and shear. Obviously, some may say that equating the results of testing laboratory-manufactured skin to human buttocks is akin to flying by the seat of your pants (pun intended) — that it is too abstract and too exclusive of other factors involved in deep tissue injury.

But as an observer of wound care literature for the past dozen years, I appreciate the effort to identify and isolate factors in a niche where everything seems connected to something. A wound is not necessarily just a wound per its etiology. And patient comorbidities. And location. And so on. This “niche” encompasses almost every aspect of healthcare. So drilling down — for study, for education, to provide care — ie, to create a niche within a niche— holds great promise and expands, as opposed to narrows — care possibilities.

You go, Dr. Gefen!

Barbara Zeiger, Editor
Ostomy Wound Management