National Institute for Health Research funds for wound care research

Sep 17 2009

The University of York's Department of Health Sciences and NHS Leeds Community Healthcare have been awarded a £1.75m grant from the National Institute for Health Research to carry out a study into complex wounds.

The grant is funding a five year research project into the care of leg ulcers and other complex wounds.

Professor Nicky Cullum, leader of the wounds research group at the University of York, and Nikki Stubbs, the clinical team leader from the Leeds tissue viability service, will be the study's joint leaders.

Nikki Stubbs said: "Complex wounds are ones that don't heal easily. They can be painful and the continuous care needed also means the lifestyle of the patient can be severely affected. The grant we've been given means that we can work with our patients to improve their care and their quality of life".

The first two years of the programme include a survey of people with complex wounds and their care, followed by a feasibility study to establish if a register of patients would be possible and useful. There is currently no single location where this kind of information about wounds is stored. By creating a wound register in Leeds the project team can capture information to help in the planning, research and treatment of wounds.

If successful, this could be extended to include data from across the country and become a national register. Discovering which treatments are successful would help improve the quality of care for people in the future.

The research programme will also summarise the existing research to find out which wound treatments are the most effective, and then make sure that health care professionals and patients have access to this information. A third element to the work is finding out which aspects of wound treatments and services are most important to patients and carers.

Professor Cullum said: "The funding of this research programme is a fantastic opportunity to improve our understanding and care of people with wounds that are hard to heal. We are committed to ensuring that this research makes a real difference to patients, carers and the NHS. By summarising existing research in new ways and by collecting information in a wounds register, we should be able to identify effective treatments earlier than we currently do."

Leeds was chosen to host the project as it has a large and diverse population. The city was described in the application as being the "ideal laboratory" for research into common health problems such as complex wounds.

But the success of the project will, in part, be dependant upon patients sharing their experiences. Sheila Gowland, of the Oakwoods area of Leeds, who has been suffering from a leg ulcer for a number of years, thinks the research is vital.

"The help I've had from the wound nurses has really made a difference. I can manage my condition now and going along to the clinic definitely improved my ulcer and has stopped it coming back. If we can find out more about how to treat wounds then that will help hundreds of other people like me," she said.

Patients, former patients or carers as well as clinical staff are needed to set up the wound register. The researchers want to talk to them about their experiences, how they think a wound register might work and how it might benefit them in the future. If you would like to get involved please contact Karen Lamb on 0113 305 5099 or Mary Madden on 01904 321717.

http://www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/