Lee Memorial Hospital: Local Plug for Fort Myers, Florida, Wound Care Center a Model of Brevity, Clarity

Sometimes just a bit of just the right information communicates best. Hats off to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, Florida, for landing the kind of local coverage every hyperbaric oxygen treatment center should covet. This little gem from the local NBC affiliate hits all the basics with minimum effort:

• A stirring tale of a 2-year-old girl recovering from burns.
• A short explanation of what wound centers do and how hyperbaric oxygen therapy works.
• A strong case for adapting to meet the public healthcare demands of a rapidly aging population.
• A believable connection to success with advanced, specialized wound care centers.

No doubt the hospital marketing and public relations team and clinical experts played this one clear and straight. That's why this reporter got a great story, this hospital got some great ink, and these readers got another great reason to look into this great new movement in American medicine. All in about 390 words.

[Photo: Lee Memorial Hospital website]

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Centers: Advantages of Participating in the HyperbaricLink Directory

Let's pick one center at random from today's newsfeed. Almost precisely one year ago, we wrote with enthusiasm about the expansion of the hyperbaric wound care program at Oakwood Heritage Hospital, in your faithful correspondent's idyllic hometown of Taylor, Michigan. We immediately gathered what information was available and posted standard profile MI019 in the HyperbaricLink treatment center directory. Take a quick look and come right back.

What's missing? An email address to contact. The name of a medical director or administrator. What else? Without the benefit of any communication with the center, we simply don't know.

Now go read about the center on the hospital's website. About advanced wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy the hospital provides very little information for patients, families, and referring physicians. But here we do learn what conditions this center treats: chronic wounds, diabetic ulcers, skin grafts and flaps, osteomyelitis, and radionecrosis. That's three more than we listed. Had this center worked with us to publish a complete and accurate listing, HyperbaricLink visitors would get all the right information, complete with links to our trustworthy content on HBOT, diseases and conditions treated, the published clinical evidence, and plenty of helpful, reliable resources.

What other advantages might Oakwood Heritage gain by participating with HyperbaricLink? Try googling wound care taylor mi. Your local search results will differ from ours, but likely you'll find our directory listing equals or beats the hospital. List with us, link to us, and we all secure the top spots for the most relevant queries. About this subject we have dedicated an entire page, where you can also request our white paper on Internet Best Practices for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Providers.

ATTENTION Treatment Centers. Start your countdown to a complete and accurate listing in our directory. It's as easy as 3-2-1. See what's new and create the profile that's right for your facility.

CLICK HERE to learn more about directory listing options.  

Only by working together can we make the evidence-based hyperbaric community more prominent and more discoverable on the web. And don't worry, Oakwood. We'll be in touch.

[Photo: Oakwood Healthcare website]

Regenerative Medicine Superstar Takes On Chronic Wounds

TED addicts and loyal followers of the science fiction-turned-fact world of regenerative medicine are all abuzz about the latest lecture by Dr Anthony Atala, Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He "printed" a human kidney live on stage! Well, only if you believe everything you read in the newspaper and on Twitter. He actually printed a simple but exquisite 3D mold, and all week long we've been sending readers to the media correction posted on the Wake Forest website.

We're none the less thrilled about the promise of this emerging technology. And we're especially delighted there's a promising new application in chronic wounds, thermal burns, and skin grafts and flaps. Atala briefly explains around the 8:00 minute mark on the video below.

Surely medicine stands at the brink of a bold new era.



O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

The Skin Gun: Stem Cell Sprayer For Thermal Burns

The treatment of thermal burns today often involves the transplant of skin grafts, with notoriously long healing times and high susceptibility to infection. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy aids in speeding healing and controlling swelling and infection. That's a pretty neat trick, but nothing at all like what you are about to see.

Double-click on the (large) video below. Sometimes from the first look you know when a flashy new gadget is a real medical breakthrough.



Developed by a team led by Dr Jörg Gerlach at the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the spray gun device is really just the business end of a 3-stage process. First the patient's own skin and skin stem cells are collected and isolated. Then the skin cell solution is applied directly to the wound with a spray gun. Finally the wound is dressed with an artificial vascular system, a "bioreactor bandage that distributes glucose, sugar, amino acids, antibiotics, and electrolytes" and cleans the treatment area to support stem cells that grow into new skin.

Wow! is about all we have to add.

Read more at the Medgadget blog and in the McGowan press release.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

HAIs: Fighting A Pandemic Already In Progress

Yesterday we doubted whether HBOT has any role in treating H1N1, the so-called swine flu, poised for a comeback this fall and winter. But we have no doubt hyperbaric oxygen is a powerful weapon against the baddest bugs our healthcare community is fighting right here right now. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Turns out most of these tiny culprits find life real hard in pure oxygen under high pressure. Researchers have shown us the proof in the petri dish. Clinicians have borne out the evidence in treating chronic wounds and several other approved conditions, including necrotizing infections, intracranial abscess, osteomyelitis, and gas gangrene, where HBOT helps control methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other troublesome bacteria.

There's plenty hospitals can do to prevent hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), sometimes also called healthcare-acquired or nosocomial infections. And there's plenty they're not doing. A recent CNN report sings the praises of some of this war's unsung heroes. Our question is, What's the best course of treatment when prevention fails and attacking bacteria outmatch our best antibiotics? We think you'll be seeing HBOT in the mix and in the news more and more.