I commenced my PhD project in February 2022, which will be looking at the effect of augmentative technologies on tissue proliferation in wounded patients with critical limb threatening ischemia and/or diabetic neuroischemia.

This project was spawned from a combination of my career-long passion for wound healing and tissue regeneration in clinical practice and our unit’s recent experience with a biodegradable polyurethane matrix which has shown promising signs as an effective vehicle for tissue proliferation and wound healing in a cohort of patients who traditionally experience difficulties in healing wounds.

The project aims to provide deeper understanding of drivers of tissue proliferation in this patient cohort who are at high risk of limb amputation. Subsequently this project hosts scope for high translatability to clinical practice, where outcomes stand to inform improvements in product development, surgical techniques and nursing driven wound management practice.

As of February 2022 this project has attracted a total of $270,000 AUD in a mixture of University and Industry grant funding which has facilitated liberation of my significant clinical responsibilities through hiring of an additional Nurse Consultant role at the Flinders Medical Centre Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery for the next 3 years.

Prior to the PhD project, I had recently completed a prospective case series looking at the use of a novel epidermal skin harvest and grafting device for the treatment of wounded vascular disease patients. This project observed wound healing outcomes in a cohort of 10 patients with a variety of vascular disease aetiologies using novel epidermal skin grafting device which was a nurse led intervention, able to be implemented in outpatient and bedside settings. This project has resulted in a manuscript which has recently been accepted by Wound Research and Practice – date of publication TBA.

I have also previously coordinated a wound dressing randomised control trial (RCT) where we were comparing the effect of an Oxidised Regenerated Cellulose, Bovine Collagen and Silver matrix dressing compared with our usual standard of care in diabetic patients who had undergone minor amputation of their lower limb. This project resulted in a neutral outcome (no significant difference between control and trial groups) and therefore did not progress to manuscript publication. This project attracted $100,000 AUD of Industry grant funding.