Volume 30 Number 4

The Wounds Australia biennial national conference was held at the stunning International Convention Centre, Sydney Darling Harbour 14–17 September. Alongside my scientific Co-chair, Terry Swanson, and a very experienced and hard-working scientific committee, an outstanding scientific program was delivered to over 700 delegates. The theme for the conference was Time to heal, time to unite, time to innovate. Our international keynotes included Prof Bijan Najafi (USA), Dr Hari Nair (Malaysia), Dr Leanne Atkin (UK) and Prof Sebastian Probst (Switzerland). Hearing from such outstanding leaders in international wound research was inspiring and a special mention must go to the dedicated Dr Atkin who zoomed in live from the UK at 3am local time to join us for questions after her outstanding keynote address.

A personal highlight from the conference was our final plenary session where we heard from consumers about their experiences with healthcare in the context of wound care and dementia. This session was both educational and emotional, prompting all of us to reflect on our practice environments and management of individuals living with dementia. I certainly took home a lot of strategies to help deliver better care to this population in my daily practice.

Thank you to all of the researchers and clinicians who spent the time to submit their research, presenting posters, case studies and original research. We received over 150 abstracts which represented the diversity of the scope of our profession, from acute wound infection, chronic wounds, pressure injury, basic science, dermatology and many, many more. This participation in the conference is what makes it such an amazing event. It was especially wonderful to see the volume of high quality research that had been produced despite the extremely difficult research environment we find ourselves in. The scientific committee were proud to present awards to – Donna Nair (Best Case Study), Tabitha Rando (Best Original Research), Hailey Donnelly (Best New Investigator) and Priscilla Lim (Best Poster). I hope you enjoy reading the oral abstracts printed in this edition of Wound Practice and Research.

You will all agree that after so many years of online events and Zoom meetings, it was wonderful to reunite with colleagues and friends and share knowledge and innovation face-to-face. Wounds Australia look forward to seeing you in Brisbane in 2024 for another inspiring event, in an equally stellar location, the Brisbane Convention Centre.

Author(s)

Peta Tehan
Scientific Co-chair, Wounds Australia National Conference