BBI Announces Formation of European Scientific Advisory Board to Support Advances in Woundcare and Pressure Ulcer Prevention

MANCHESTER, U.K. and LOS ANGELES, July 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical device company Bruin Biometrics, LLC ("BBI"), today announced the formation of a European Scientific Advisory Board, comprised of internationally-recognized luminaries in woundcare, who will help shape the future of pressure ulcer prevention and build additional momentum for BBI's SEM Scanner, a handheld device for pressure ulcer detection healthcare institutions throughout the UK and Ireland are adopting.  

The Scientific Advisory Board will support BBI's mission to advance the science of wound care in order to eradicate all preventable pressure ulcers.  This board will not only provide insight to guide clinical strategy but will also focus on education, and help communicate with fellow healthcare professionals on new pathways and the best pressure ulcer care and prevention practices.

Inaugural members represent a broad section of the wound care clinical community with multi-disciplinary backgrounds, including academic and health economic experts, clinical researchers, practicing physicians, and nurse specialists in the fields of tissue viability, woundcare, orthopaedics, podiatry, and infection prevention.

• Dmitri Beeckman, RN PhD: Professor, Ghent University; Chair of the Scientific Committee, European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP); Scientific Committee, World Union of Wound Healing Society (WUWHS); Fellow, European Academy of Nursing Science (EANS); Advisor, Belgian Federal Counsel for the Quality of Nursing Activities
• Steven Gershon, MD: President, Gershon Pain Specialists; Clinical Asst Professor, Eastern Virginia Medical School; Fellow, American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Consultant for Virginia Health Quality Center, Medical Director of Shoreline Medical Inc., Medical Director for Rehabilitation Services for Kindred Care
• Jacqui Fletcher, MSc: Editor Wounds UK journal; Clinical Strategy Director, Welsh Wound Innovation Centre (previous); former Fellow, National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE)
• Zena Moore, PhD, MSc: Professor and Head of School of Nursing & Midwifery, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI); Past President, European Wound Management Association (EWMA); Trustee, European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP)
• Karen Ousey, PhD: Professor and Director, Institute of Skin Integrity & Infection Prevention at the University of Huddersfield; Clinical Associate Professor, Australian Catholic University; Adjunct Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology; Florence Nightingale Scholar
• Lisette Schoonhoven, PhD: Professor of Nursing, University of Southampton; Fellow, European Academy of Nursing Science (EANS); President, European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Board (EPUAP); Chair, 2014 International Pressure Ulcer Guideline Development

The SEM Scanner continues to gain momentum based on strong clinical research that has won awards from Irish Medical Times and the Journal of Woundcare, as well as its impact on reducing pressure ulcer incidence in real-world settings. In February 2016, Virgin Care, an independent provider of services to NHS England, announced that it was equipping nurses with SEM Scanner as its new standard of care for pressure ulcer detection and prevention following a six-month pilot in which Virgin Care reduced pressure ulcers by approximately 95 percent with the SEM Scanner.

SEM Scanner is currently available in the United Kingdom and Ireland and was recently approved for commercial use in Canada.

Quotes:

Martin Burns, CEO BBI: "Preventing a disease state like pressure ulcers is extraordinarily difficult to achieve in real-world practice. The detection benefit of the Scanner is obvious, but scientific innovation and education must come together to overcome ingrained behaviours and affect lasting systemic change across established clinical practice, policy, patient and caregiver engagement, and economic incentives.  We are delighted to welcome this particular panel of experts, a group of relentless scientists, who share our mission of prevention.  This panel will help guide future research, education and information exchange with investigators and clinicians in support of our expanding clinical aspirations."  

Dr. Steve Gershon: "With such a varied and experienced panel of experts, we are bound to create new and exciting opportunities to forge ahead with innovation that is specifically aimed at meeting clinician and patient needs around the world.  I am delighted that the BBI Scientific Advisory Board has been formed and I look forward to working with the group as we seek to pioneer new ideas and techniques in pressure ulcer prevention."

Dr. Lisette Schoonhoven: "We still have a lot of work to do in the field of pressure ulcer prevention. To date, we have not had the diagnostic tools for early detection. The SEM Scanner offers a promising technology to reinvent the way we think about pressure ulcer prevention."

About the Board Members
Dimitri Beekman, RN PhD specializes in the development and psychometric evaluation of instruments used to measure outcomes of nursing interventions and in testing complex interventions in care. He was appointed advisor of the Belgian Federal Counsel for the Quality of Nursing Activities and is currently lead investigator on several projects related to acute care and long-term care of the elderly.

Steven Gershon, MD has been in private practice for over 24 years specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation and pain management at Gershon Pain in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Dr. Gershon has been a principal investigator on several clinical trials of pain medications, lectures nationally and internationally, and has authored articles on pain management.

Jacqui Fletcher, MSc has served as the Clinical Strategy Director at the Welsh Wound Innovation Centre and has an honorary clinical contract at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. She is the Clinical Editor of Wounds UK and also served as an Honorary Fellow of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Ms. Fletcher is a committee member for the International Wound Infection Institute and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for International Wound Journal and the Journal of Wound Care. She served as an Executive of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel from its inception in 1996.

Zena Moore, PhD MSc is Professor and Head of Royal College of Surgeons' School of Nursing & Midwifery.  Her clinical research interest is Wound Healing & Tissue Repair, with a particular focus on Pressure Ulcer Prevention, for which she has published over 150 articles and book chapters. She is actively involved in National and International guideline development, and sits on the Editorial Board for 7 different Journals. Zena is a board member of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP), a member of the Dublin Wicklow Branch of the Wound Management Association of Ireland and was president of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) 2009-2011, where she remains an active member of the association.

Dr. Karen Ousey, PhD is Professor and Director for the Institute of Skin Integrity and Infection Prevention, University of Huddersfield. She is also Clinical Associate Professor at the Australian Catholic University, Adjunct Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology and Clinical Editor for Wounds UK. Karen's clinical background is in orthopaedics and tissue viability. She has over 30 years' experience in both clinical practice and in academia. Her research interests include tissue viability in particular the management of pressure ulceration, the importance of enhancing Health Related Quality of Life Outcomes and measurement of pressure, shear and friction.  She is widely published and has edited the text book Pressure Area Care and co-edited Lower Extremity Wounds: A Problem Based Approach.

Lisette Schoonhoven, PhD is Professor of Nursing in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Southampton and President of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Board. She is an expert on the quality and safety of fundamental nursing care, with an emphasis on pressure ulcers and skin health.

About Pressure Ulcers
Pressure ulcers are a common medical problem that can lead to pain, disfigurement, infection and death. Also known as bedsores, pressure sores or decubitus ulcers, pressure ulcers are an area of localized damage to the skin and underlying tissue – usually around an area of bony prominence, such as the sacrum, coccyx, heels, and hips – that results from pressure involving shear and/or friction. Across Europe and the United States, it is estimated that 18%-25% of patients in both acute care and long-term care settings suffer from pressure ulcers, disproportionately impacting the elderly and patients with limited mobility. There are some 2.5 million pressure ulcer cases annually in the European Union, and nearly 500,000 in the United Kingdom, which spends £2.1bn, or 4% of the NHS budget, on the condition. In the U.S., some 2.5 million Americans develop pressure ulcers annually in acute care facilities, and 60,000 Americans die annually from pressure ulcer complications such as cancer, sepsis, cellulitis, and MRSA

About BBI 
Bruin Biometrics LLC, a pioneer in biometric-sensor based medical devices, is committed to the development of point-of-care diagnostic solutions for early detection and monitoring of chronic, preventable conditions. The company's first product is the SEM Scanner, a hand-held non-invasive device that assesses sub-epidermal moisture, a biomarker which has been found to detect early-stage pressure ulcers as much as 10 days earlier than visual observation. Pressure ulcers affect approximately 25% of acute care hospital and long-term care patients – typically the elderly and immobile. SEM Scanner is CE Mark approved and is currently in full commercial launch in the EU and Canada. SEM Scanner is not currently for sale in the United States.

BBI is also developing OrthoSonos, a non-invasive device for real-time orthopedic joint monitoring and assessment of prosthetic implant failure; and P02M, the first device for monitoring tissue oxygenation at a specific location in real time. P02M is initially being tested for continual monitoring of tissue and vascular viability in the feet of diabetics. Diabetes can cause peripheral artery disease and peripheral neuropathy, putting patients at risk for foot ulcers.

BBI is based in Los Angeles and maintains a European office in Manchester, UK.

For additional information, visit www.bruinbiometrics.com. Follow BBI on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bruinbiometrics.  

SOURCE Bruin Biometrics, LLC

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