Wound healing curriculum for physicians

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.

Download the updated UEMS wound curriculum for physicians here.

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.  

Background and aim of the initiative

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.

Working group

The curriculum was developed by a working group including the following experts in wound management: 

• Robert Strohal, MD (Chair), Austria
• Jan Apelqvist, MD, Sweden
• Mark Collier, RN, UK
• Ida Verheyen Cronau, RN, Germany
• Magdalena Annersten Gershater, RN, Sweden
• Samantha Holloway, RN, UK
• Knut Kröger, MD, Germany
• Andrea Pokorna, RN, Czech Republic