Charles Institute Seminar Series 2022-23: Awaiting the Potential for Early Pressure Ulcer Identification with Guest Speaker Prof Declan Patton
Date of Talk: Thursday 25th May 2023 @12PM
Location: Charles Seminar Room / Online Via Zoom
Talk Title: Awaiting the Potential for Early Pressure Ulcer Identification
Speaker Details: Prof Declan Patton
Skin Wounds & Trauma Research Centre
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Short Biography: Declan is currently Director of Nursing & Midwifery Research and Deputy Director of the Skin Wounds & Trauma (SWaT) Research Centre at RCSI. He is responsible for developing programmes of patient outcomes-focused research, supervising PhD and MSc research projects, driving outputs into high-ranking peer-reviewed health journals, and establishing the RCSI SWaT Research Centre as a key international leader in wound care education and research.
His own research interests have a strong focus on patient outcomes, patient safety and innovation in the areas of pressure ulcers, venous leg ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, and medical device research.
Declan has been appointed by the Minister for Health as Deputy Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee for Medical Device Research. He has also been appointed to the Royal Irish Academy Life and Medical Sciences Multidisciplinary Committee for 2022-2026. He is also Chair of the RCSI AREC and HREC and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Tissue Viability. Declan works closely with a number of National and International experts, with the ultimate goal to generate and disseminate the best evidence.
He has over 120 peer-reviewed publications. Declan also has a strong track record in supervising PhD students to completion. He holds adjunct and honorary positions at the Department of Nursing, Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences, Jeddah, KSA; the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health at the University of Wollongong in Australia and at Griffith University, Australia
Abstract for talk: There will be two parts to this talk. First of all, Declan will talk about the Skin Wounds and Trauma (SWaT) Research Centre, how it was established and key issues to consider when establishing a clinical research centre and sustaining its success. Second, the talk will focus on the issue of identifying Pressure Ulcers before they become visible to the naked eye. In particular, he will discuss his research on the identification of Sub Epidermal Moisture (SEM) as a means to identify unseen tissue damage, with the resultant outcome that clinicians can ramp up preventative interventions earlier and in a targeted manner. This could mean fewer pressure ulcers across at-risk groups, with a significant impact of factors such as hospital costs, patient pain, quality of life and hospital length of stay.
