University research into wound models wins awards

A West Yorkshire university has scooped national awards for its research into creating skin wound models for healthcare training.

The team based at the University of Huddersfield have been developing a range of models to help train student medics before they encounter patients in clinics.

Dr Jessica Senior, a senior lecturer at the university's Department of Pharmacy, said the designs gave students confidence before tackling real-world examples.

"Because they have had that model it has bridged a bit of that gap between a model and the real patient," she said.

In April, the team won two prizes from the Society of Tissue Viability, a member-led skin health charity.

The models help them learn the medical process of removing dead, damaged or infected tissue from a wound, with the designs aiming to match the textural characteristics of skin injuries.

Dr Senior said other training tools such as plastic models had been used, but fail to provide the same quality of training.

"They lack the physiological relevance and the chance to manipulate these models," she said.

"When they are then visiting their first patient there is a real lack of clinical translation there, and that can be quite risky and really unnerving for that trainee."

At a ceremony in Bradford, the team won the "Together We Achieve" award, which recognises outstanding contributions in skin health and wound healing.

Dr Senior also won an individual award connected to her research on the project.

"I am immensely proud of the collaborations, the people that I have met along the way that have enabled this to happen," she said.

"It is quite a shock, but I am very humble and very grateful to be a part of it."

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