ConvaTec to Conduct Educational Symposia at the 23rd Annual Symposium on Advanced Wound Care

ORLANDO, Fla., April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- ConvaTec, a world-leading developer and marketer of innovative medical technologies for community and hospital care, today announced that the company will host two symposia focused on advancements in wound therapy on April 18, 2010 and April 19, 2010 at the 23rd Annual Symposium on Advanced Wound Care and Wound Healing Society (SAWC/WHS) in Orlando, Florida.

The symposium titled "The Appropriate Role of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) in the Spectrum of Wound Care: Introduction of a Guidelines Document" will take place from 7:30-9:30 AM, Sunday, April 18, 2010 and feature a panel of wound care experts from multiple disciplines who will introduce the findings of a new guidelines document to be published as a supplement to Ostomy Wound Management, May 2010. The symposium and subsequent guidelines document will provide recommendations for where NPWT fits into the treatment paradigms for common acute and chronic wounds, taking into consideration optimal patient outcomes and cost-of-care. The panel will discuss the criteria to start and stop NPWT based on various wound types, pre-application management to optimize treatment response, identification of appropriate candidates, benchmark indicators for treatment outcomes and recommendations on when to transition between NPWT and another treatment modality.

The goal of the guidelines is to encourage responsible wound management across the continuum of healthcare settings and spectrum of wound pathologies so that positive and cost-effective patient outcomes can be achieved.

The symposium titled "'Connecting the Dots': Validating Wound Care Algorithms – From Theory to Clinical Practice" will take place from 7:30-9:30 AM, Monday, April 19, 2010 and explain the concepts of content and construct validity as they apply to wound care. Faculty will present the results and implications of a study that was conducted to validate the use of Solutions® Wound Care Algorithms with non-expert health professionals.

Case presentations will illustrate how the implementation of these algorithms in clinical practice have had a positive impact on healthcare professionals' treatment decisions resulting in better clinical and economic outcomes and improvements in the provision of quality wound care.

Results of the algorithm validation study will be published in the April edition of Ostomy Wound Management.

To register for either symposium, please visit http://spring.sawc.net/satellites and have your registration confirmation code ready. You will be prompted to enter that confirmation code to view and register for these symposia.

For questions about the symposia, please call 800-237-7285 ext.233.

About ConvaTec

ConvaTec is a leading developer and marketer of innovative medical technologies that have helped improve the lives of millions of people worldwide. With four key business divisions – Ostomy Care, Wound Therapeutics, Continence and Critical Care and Infusion Devices – ConvaTec products support health care professionals from the hospital to the community health setting. From its headquarters in Skillman, New Jersey, the company oversees more than 8,000 employees in over 90 countries serving consumers and their health care professionals on six continents. For more information, please visit www.convatec.com.

Follow us on Twitter at @ConvaTecWound.

Our world is what we make of it is a trademark of ConvaTec Inc.

SOURCE ConvaTec