Research & Publications

How can we improve wound care clinical research so that payers can have the evidence they need to formulate positive coverage determinations for wound care products and procedures? Read what 140+ stakeholders at the Wound Care Evidence Summit – including payers, policymakers, researchers, medical societies and clinicians, manufacturers and more – brought to the collaborative table in this first publication stemming from the 2022 Summit. “Better Wound Care Begins With Better Evidence: Outcomes of the Wound Care Evidence Summit" (Advances in Wound Care) identifies key themes that emerged, examines the quality and adequacy of the existing chronic wound care research base and discusses gaps and implications for clinical trial design as identified by Summit participants. Proposed solutions identified to improve evidence quality include:

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A new study published online in the Journal of Medical Economics demonstrates the shifting economic impact of chronic nonhealing wounds in Medicare patients as site of care settings have shifted. The study “Chronic wound prevalence and the associated cost of treatment in Medicare beneficiaries: changes between 2014 and 2019” analyzed 2019 Medicare datasets to determine the cost of chronic wound care for Medicare beneficiaries in aggregate, by wound type, and by setting, then compared figures with a previous analysis of 2014 data to identify shifts and trends. The findings show a 13 percent increase in chronic wound care prevalence amid a surprising 20 percent decrease in chronic wound care costs. The team of researchers explain possible drivers of these trends and what the policy implications may be.
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A new study, “An Economic Evaluation of the Impact, Cost, and Medicare Policy Implications of Chronic Nonhealing Wounds,” published in the International Society For Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research’s Value in Health journal (Jan. 2018) demonstrates the economic impact and full burden of chronic nonhealing wounds in the Medicare population. The study analyzed the Medicare 5% Limited Data Set for CY2014 to determine the cost of chronic wound care for Medicare beneficiaries in aggregate, by wound type, and by setting. Topline findings show that chronic wounds impact nearly 15% of Medicare beneficiaries (8.2 million) at an annual cost to Medicare conservatively estimated at $28.1 to $31.7 billion. Key findings:

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The Alliance led a panel on "Harnessing Big Data for Wound Healing Research: Which is More Relevant in the Quest for Evidence - Patient Centered Outcomes or Randomized Trials?" at the 2016 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) meeting in Washington DC. Panelists included Marcia Nusgart (moderator), Dr. Caroline Fife, Dr. Marissa Carter and AHRQ's Dr. Elise Berliner. See our Value of Wound Care Research page for additional insights on trends in  wound care research today,
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The Alliance recognized the need to craft a white paper on criteria for conducting methodologically sound randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) as well as address the importance and relative strength of non-RCT research in the wound care field. In 2010, the assembled a team of prominent, respected wound care researchers to address this task. The team was called the Panel On Wound Care Evidence Based Research (POWER™) and its ensuing paper, “Consensus Principles for Wound Care Research Obtained Using a Delphi Process” was published in the 2012 May/June edition of Wound Repair and Regeneration.  The paper established a series of principles for all stakeholders involved in clinical or comparative effectiveness research in wound healing.

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