In Spring 2014, a EWMA working group developed a curriculum for physicians involved in wound care, with the aim to ensure that they have a sufficient level of expertise within the area to provide efficient and safe treatment of their patients. The curriculum was submitted for adoption by the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) in April 2015.
In October 2018, UEMS approved a curriculum on wound healing for physicians as the official European training requirements (ETR) for specialisation in wound healing.
The UEMS-approved curriculum builds on the Wound Healing Curriculum for Physicians developed by the EWMA working group. EWMA congratulates the responsible group, including current EWMA Council members Andrea Pokorná and Samantha Holloway, for the successful development of the curriculum; and previous EWMA Council member Robert Strohal for the great achievement of full UEMS approval adoption. The ETRs are regularly updated, and an updated version can be found at the website of the UEMS Multidisciplinary Joint Committee – Wound Healing
The European Association of Fellows in Wound Healing (EAFWH) will offer education programmes based on the UEMS approved curriculum to physicians across Europe. The first course will open in January 2019.
For more information about the courses offered by EAFWH, please visit the EAFWH website.
Despite the fact that patients with chronic hard-to-heal wounds are a typical, almost daily, part of medicine, they still constitute aspecific challenge for the treating physician. Consequently, we believe that the essential aspects of this medical field should be familiar to all physicians, but in particular to those who deal with wounds regularlyas a result of their specialisation.
To optimise the treatment of patients with chronic wounds, physicians must be able to select therapy appropriate to the underlying aetiology as well as the correct localtherapeutic measures. By developing the wound care curriculum presented here, EWMA aims to support these skills of the physicians involved in wound management.
The curriculum includes the fundamentals of the medical field of wound healing as well as information on the different pathogenetic causes of chronic wounds, clinical assessment, development of therapeutic concepts, wound prevention, and collaboration with other specialists, nurses, and health care providers dealing with this patient population. It also aims to support the recognition of the value of interdisciplinary team work with regards to optimising treatment for all patients with wounds.
This key knowledge related to the medical field of wound healing is suggested for inclusion in the broad post-graduate training programme for general practitioners, angiologists, diabetologists, dermatologists, general surgeons, plastic surgeons, geriatricians, and vascular surgeons. The curriculum should be adapted to the content of the relevant post-graduate training programme in which it is included.
The curriculum was developed by a working group including the following experts in wound management:
