Address from Chairperson of Board of Directors

Chairperson of Board of Directors
Takahiko MORIGUCHI, M.D., Ph.D.

It is my honor to be given a chance to address as the Chairperson of Board of Directorsof Japanese Society of Pressure Ulcers (JSPU) to all of you. The Japanese Society ofPressure Ulcers was established in 1998. As of January 2007, there are 5,240 members,including 2,700 nurses, 1,500 medical doctors, 180 experts in nutrition, 170 pharmacists,
75 occupational/physical therapists, 60 medical engineering specialists and others. We
have been publishing our own journal. It is published four issues per year with an averageof 16 papers, committee announcements and regional conference abstracts in each issue
using on-line contributions. We have seven regional conferences and an annual nationalconference each year. There are more than 5000 participants at the society conference,with over 400 research presentations, and 75 sponsorship exhibitions in the regular basis.
To further encourage our society members, we have established a system to honor them
an award and provide grants.
Our main program at the conference basically consists of:Contributions and answers regarding expectations in the future of nursing
Prevention of pressure ulcer incidents on wheelchairs
Best practices for pressure ulcers
Collaboration on acute and terminal period pressure ulcers
Total management of pressure ulcers
Improvement of the DESIGN tool
Nutrition care in the management of pressure ulcers

Practice of pressure ulcer therapy and care in home nursing
Reflections on government medical insurances with regard to pressure ulcer care
Relations between eating/swallowing disturbance and pressure ulcers.

The JSPU is composed of members from various fields. This is why, opinions regarding
counter measures against pressure ulcers and guidelines for its local treatment andrelated matters have intensified in the past. Furthermore, in April 2006, the treatment
regimes for pressure ulcers have been revised so that anybody related to this field could
understand them. Also, special care for patients at high risks of developing a pressure
ulcer was established and documented. This marks a special period where "nurses withspecialized education" can implement his or her educational background and to put topractice the treatment regimes for pressure ulcers care. This was also the time when thecombined efforts of the Japan Nursing Association and JSPU been highly evaluated.
We have just started to work on a system for qualifying specialists of pressure ulcers,which will offer a more advanced quality of pressure ulcer prevention and management
for patients that can be utilized by both nurses and specialists from other fields. Under
this system, participants will be required to earn points for attendance at meetings,
educational seminars, experience and reports of therapy/care in the clinical field.
From the perspective as an association, our projects and objectives have three mainpillars: 1) Enhancement of practical medical care of pressure ulcers, 2) Encouragement ofbasic and clinical research related to pressure ulcers, 3) Improvement of the quality of
medical care for community based pressure ulcer patients.
Five years ago, our society developed the "DESIGN tool" for evaluating wound healing
and classifying pressure ulcers. This year, we will add more detailed points using
prospective data collected from all over Japan.
Now, we are also preparing: 1) a list of medical terminology for pressure ulcers andguidelines, 2) attempting to gather epidemiological data to investigate the actual
circumstances of pressure ulcers and 3) working on the standardization of instruments
and materials in relation with the actual circumstances. Finally, with great fervor, we areestablishing a system to better understanding of community based pressure ulcer patientsand strengthening ties with associations which provides value to patients at home care.
JSPU strongly wishes to add significant value to this area by collaborating with allpressure ulcer related medical staffs, researchers, and company members, from all overthe world.