Avo Partners with The Wound Healing Society to Digitally Transform Guidelines
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Beverly, MA - The Wound Healing Society (WHS), a society dedicated to enhancing wound healing outcomes through science and professional education, is excited to announce a partnership with Avo, a software platform that brings clinical evidence into the workflow to help clinicians streamline decisions and save time. WHS has collaborated with Avo to digitally transform treatment guidelines for Pressure Ulcers and Diabetic Foot Ulcers, with more digital tools to come as additional guidelines are published. Anyone can now access WHS Guidelines for the Treatment of Pressure Ulcers and WHS Guidelines for Diabetic Foot Ulcer Treatment using Avo.
Excitingly, this collaboration releases a new Avo feature, “Ask the Guidelines”, which allows users to get questions answered from the guidelines instead of needing to click through the clinical pathway to get to a response. This feature will enable clinicians to get evidence-based responses to their questions more quickly using the new AI functionality.
Transforming guidelines for the effective treatment of pressure ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers
Chronic wounds are a significant medical issue, affecting over 6.5 million patients and accounting for more than $25 billion in healthcare costs annually in the United States alone.[1] Treatment of these wounds, which include pressure ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers, is difficult and complex. Patients with pressure ulcers, which affect an estimated 2.5 million Americans each year,[2] often suffer from medical complications associated with the wounds, such as infections and the need for lengthy treatments, and these conditions have a profound impact on quality of life. This necessitates a multidisciplinary approach to management, combining prevention, timely diagnosis, and comprehensive care strategies.
Additionally, treating diabetic foot ulcers presents its own set of complex challenges. About one-third of people with diabetes develop a foot ulcer during their lifetime.[3] The risk of infection is high, and without appropriate management, diabetic foot ulcers can lead to severe infections or even amputation.
The founding members of the Wound Healing Society understood the challenges associated with treating chronic wounds and recognized the need for a uniform set of guidelines for clinical wound treatment.[4] In response, the WHS developed a series of wound treatment guidelines that were first published in 2006 and have since been updated several times. The most recent iterations of the WHS guidelines for the treatment of pressure ulcers[5] and diabetic foot ulcers[6] have recently been published in Wound Repair and Regeneration and have now been digitized by Avo.
The challenges surrounding effective care for patients with chronic wounds underscore the importance of collaborations like the one between Avo and The Wound Healing Society, as they aim to leverage technology and research to improve treatment outcomes and ultimately enhance patient well-being.
Dr. Traci Wilgus, current President of the Wound Healing Society, stated that “The WHS is excited to partner with Avo on this tool, which will allow wound care providers to rapidly access our wound care guidelines in a convenient, digital format. We predict that this will enhance utilization and implementation of the WHS guidelines in clinical settings and, ultimately, improve the quality of care for patients suffering from chronic wounds.”
Access WHS actionable tools at the point-of-care
Clinicians can now access these two WHS guidelines in a digitized format, enabling them to deliver high-quality care to patients and saving valuable time. Importantly, healthcare organizations can also integrate Avo into their EHR, which allows clinicians to automate workflows like documentation, chart review, and ordering, all of which will digest information directly from WHS guidelines and data from the patient chart to ensure that outputs are of the highest clinical standards. Additionally, Avo’s Builder platform empowers organizations to customize these clinician-facing tools according to their needs in a “drag and drop” fashion, requiring minimal-to-no IT resourcing in their efforts to standardize care.
Avo Chairman and Head of Product, Joongheum Park, M.D., shared "Our collaboration with The Wound Healing Society will help to transform the daunting challenge of pressure ulcers and diabetic foot ulcer management into a streamlined process, ensuring that every patient receives the most effective treatment based on the latest evidence. We are super excited to launch our newest AI feature, Ask the Guidelines, as part of this partnership, and we are looking forward to adding more WHS guidelines to Avo in the near future."
For information on how to customize Avo or access Avo in the EHR contact info@avomd.io
About Wound Healing Society:
Founded in 1989, the Wound Healing Society (WHS) is the premier scientific organization focused on wound healing. A nonprofit organization composed of clinical and basic scientists and wound care specialists, the mission of the WHS is to improve wound healing outcomes through science, professional education, and communication. The WHS provides a forum for interaction among scientists, clinicians, and other wound care practitioners, industrial representatives, and government agencies. The WHS is open to individuals who are interested in the field of wound healing and presently comprises more than 900 dues-paying members in the United States and other countries. The Society’s journal, Wound Repair and Regeneration, is one of the leading scientific journals in the discipline.
About Avo:
Avo’s clinician support platform empowers healthcare organizations to standardize care by effortlessly incorporating guidelines and protocols into the clinical workflow. By centralizing the latest information and transforming it into actionable tools in the EHR (or outside of it), Avo simplifies everyday tasks like documentation, ordering, and decision-making for clinicians. At Avo, we improve quality of care with love, not alerts. Reach out to info@avomd.io to learn more.
[1] Sen CK, Gordillo GM, Roy S, Kirsner R, Lambert L, Hunt TK, Gottrup F, Gurtner GC, Longaker MT. Human skin wounds: a major and snowballing threat to public health and the economy. Wound Repair Regen. 2009 Nov-Dec;17(6):763-71. doi: 10.1111/j.1524-475X.2009.00543.x. PMID: 19903300; PMCID: PMC2810192.
[2] Preventing Pressure Ulcers in Hospitals. Content last reviewed February 2024. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
[3] Armstrong DG, Tan TW, Boulton AJM, et al. Diabetic foot ulcers: a review. JAMA. 2023;330(1):62-75. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.10578
[4] Robson MC, Barbul A. Guidelines for the best care of chronic wounds. Wound Repair Regen. 2006 Nov-Dec;14(6):647-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1524-475X.2006.00173.x. PMID: 17199830.
[5] Gould LJ, Alderden J, Aslam R, Barbul A, Bogie KM, El Masry M, Graves LY, White-Chu EF, Ahmed A, Boanca K, Brash J, Brooks KR, Cockron W, Kennerly SM, Livingston AK, Page J, Stephens C, West V, Yap TL. WHS guidelines for the treatment of pressure ulcers-2023 update. Wound Repair Regen. 2024 Jan-Feb;32(1):6-33. doi: 10.1111/wrr.13130. Epub 2023 Dec 20. PMID: 37970711.
[6] Lavery LA, Suludere MA, Attinger CE, Malone M, Kang GE, Crisologo PA, Peters EJ, Rogers LC. WHS (Wound Healing Society) guidelines update: Diabetic foot ulcer treatment guidelines. Wound Repair Regen. 2024 Jan-Feb;32(1):34-46. doi: 10.1111/wrr.13133. Epub 2023 Dec 21. PMID: 38032324.