Establishing an education program for chronic wound care in China.

Chronic wounds in China are an important issue. However, wound care knowledge and the skill of health care professionals varies among hospitals and cities. The Chinese Tissue Repair Society (CTRS) has developed a 3-year training program in wound care in China that is sponsored by the World Diabetes Foundation and the Coloplast Access to Healthcare foundation. The project focuses on training physicians and nurses in wound care for patients with diabetic mellitus and other chronic skin wounds. In the past 2 years, 1618 health care professionals, including 915 physicians and 703 nurses, have been trained. Participants are from more than 200 hospitals in 21 provinces. About 1200 patients per month, on average, have benefited from this project. In total, 13 hospitals have become training bases to continue the education program. The aim of the program is to help Chinese medical professionals efficiently manage chronic wounds, thereby shortening the wound healing time, reducing the amputation rate and treatment costs, and improving quality of life.