SPECIALTY AND TITLE

Geriatrician practising Wound Care and Geriatrics

HOSPITAL AFFILIATIONS

Baycrest Hospital, Women’s College Hospital

UNIVERSITY AFFILIATIONS

Assistant Professor (part-time), University of Toronto

AREA OF RESEARCH

My area of research has involved wound care teaching using an evidence-based approach to improve wound care treatment. Wounds in older adults and long-term-care homes continues to be an issue with great educational needs, financial costs and patient quality of life issues. Our project involved creating a teaching tool where we taught the same information to variety of healthcare workers. Our hope is to break down the educational silos that currently exist in healthcare for the benefit of the patient.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE AND/OR HEALTH CARE DELIVERY

Over the years, many companies have developed expensive dressings with very limited evidence to support their use or superiority. They are actively promoted and lead to very expensive treatment plans that strain hospital budgets. At Baycrest hospital and long-term-care home, we have been able to study the wound care supplies and this lead to a 56% reduction in their cost ($147 000 to $65 000). This has been presented at another hospital and long-term care homes. Nationally, I have written teaching case reports with residents and medical students for our national wound care association’s journal, Wounds Canada, to help the learners learn how to write a case report and to teach the readers about difficult to heal wounds. I have been actively involved in several Quality Improvement initiatives involving pressure injuries and wound care education. I have formed a team of physicians across the city of Toronto practicing wound care that are interested in education, and we have been working on several projects together.