19 JUNE - 2023Emerging Trends and Opportunities for Wound Care in Asia: Of Team-based Approach, Wound Care Centres, Digital Health, and Translational InnovationsWounds represent an under-appreciated clinical and economic burden to healthcare systems with reductions in quality of life to those affected. Up to 6% of the population may be affected by chronic non-healing wounds and care may consume more than 5% of national healthcare budgets. With aging populations in Asia and an increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus and peripheral vascular disease, in addition to the episodic and recurring nature of wound care management, the wound care market in Asia is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% from 2021 to 2026. Of note, the advanced wound therapeutics segment is poised to grow more rapidly at 12% CAGR to $4.9 billion by 2024. These therapeutics may include topical negative pressure dressings (e.g. V.A.C.®) which may be used for open wounds or surgical incisions, topical oxygen therapies (e.g. Granulox®), electric stimulation (e.g. Accel-Heal®), skin substitutes like acellular dermal matrixes (e.g. Integra®) or autologous blood clot therapy (e.g. Actigraft®). Emerging trends for healthcare systems include the re-organisation of medical units to take a multi-disciplinary team approach (with podiatrists, wound nurses, vascular, orthopaedics and/or plastics surgeons and endocrinologists) which has been shown to reduce diabetic foot ulcerations and lower extremity amputations. Health systems innovation through the formation of one-stop wound centres that are multi-disciplinary, evidence-based and patient-centric expedites investigations and interventions, hence improving clinical outcomes, patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) and patient-reported experience measures (PREM), with resultant cost-effective health economic benefits. Increasingly, the provision of home or mobile wound care services may be powered by apps to link healthcare providers to patients, hence allowing the platforms to become the "Uber" of healthcare.With the increasing use of technology in healthcare, digital health solutions also hold a lot of promise and there are opportunities to provide remote wound consults by telehealth, both in the outpatient and inpatient settings. Despite the presence of multiple wound imaging solutions within the market, there are currently no established players for wound imaging in Asia, especially catering to the multi-ethnic Asian population with different skin tones. With increasing adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) across Asia, for multi-ethnic patient populations spread across a large geography with various socio-economic circumstances, there is an urgent need from wound care professionals to be able to accurate assess wounds across time periods while being able to share wound related information between providers at different levels of care. Unique value propositions will include the inter-operability of wound imaging software with existing EMR systems while By Enming Yong, MD MBA, Vascular Surgeon, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, and Joseph Lo, MD FRCS FACS, Vascular Surgeon, Woodlands Health, SingaporeCXO INSIGHTSJoseph LoEnming Yong
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