Desmond P. Bell, Jr., DPM, CWS, FACCWS, FAPWCA
Co-Founder and President
Dr. Desmond Bell is a Board Certified Wound Specialist (CWS)- (American Academy of Wound Management), a Fellow of the American College of Certified Wound Specialists and a Fellow of the American Professional Wound Care Association (FAPWCA). Dr. Bell also serves as the Vice-President of the Southeastern component of the American Professional Wound Care Association. Prior to starting the First Coast Diabetic Foot & Wound Management Center, he served as the assistant Medical Director of the Wound Management Center of Jacksonville. Dr. Bell is a graduate of Tulane University and the Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine (Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine). He served his residency training programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia and Delaware Valley Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. While at the VA, Dr. Bell received a Commendation in part for his role in wound care. He served as chief Podiatric Surgical resident and was actively involved in the Wound Care Center at Delaware Valley. Dr. Bell is the founder and Director of the Southeastern Interactive Wound Summit (SIWS), a multidisciplinary conference on advanced wound management. He is a frequent lecturer and author on the subject of wound care and diabetes. He has lectured on behalf of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida, the American Diabetes Association, the University of North Florida and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau of Organogenesis and Fox Hollow and serves as a consultant with Biolife, LLC. He has been in private practice in Jacksonville, Florida since 1997 and is on staff at Memorial Hospital of Jacksonville, St. Luke’s Hospital and Specialty Hospital of Jacksonville. Dr. Bell served on the Medical Executive Committee at Specialty Hospital and is active in the Wound Management program.
Dr. Bell’s websites: www.woundcareonwheels.com; www.wounddr.com
De Anna M. Bell, MSN, ARNP, BC, CWS, FACCWS, DAPWCA
Co-Founder and Vice President
De Anna is dually board certified and serves in multiple roles within our center; She is a Certified Wound Specialist- (American Academy of Wound Management) and is a Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner. De Anna is a Diplomate of the American Professional Wound Care Association (APWCA) and also serves as the President of the Southeastern component of the APWCA. She is both a provider and serves as the administrator of Wound Care on Wheels. She is the co-founder of the First Coast Diabetic Wound Management Center and developed our program, Wound Care on Wheels, in 2004.
De Anna graduated from the University of North Florida’s Family Nurse Practitioner Program and received a Master of science degree in Nursing in April of 2004. She received her Bachelors degree in Nursing from Thomas Jefferson University and her RN degree from Frankford Hospital School of Nursing (affiliated with the Pennsylvania State University) in Philadelphia. She was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau international honor society of nursing and graduated Summa Cum Laude from her undergraduate programs and was a Scholarship Recipient of the “Great 100 Nurses of Northeast Florida”.
De Anna provides Nurse Practitioner services through Wound Care on Wheels. She provides home wound management services to the homebound members of our communities and will be providing screening services for peripheral arterial disease and complications from diabetes as well as wound care as part of our community outreach program, aboard our 30-foot mobile unit.
For more information, go to: www.woundcareonwheels.com
History
Wound Summit Outreach, Inc. was founded in October of 2005 by Dr. Desmond Bell, DPM and De Anna Bell, ARNP as a non-profit organization. We are based in Jacksonville, Florida with our specialty in the area of wound management and education. Our Federal Tax Identification Number is: 20-3686866.
Our initial plan was to begin increasing the knowledge of nurses who were providing care to patients with chronic ulcers.
Over time in our private practice, First Coast Diabetic Foot & Wound Management Center, we had become aware of many issues that were having a direct negative impact on the healing rates of patients who had been referred to us. We became increasingly frustrated by the lack of evidence based protocols being utilized by the practitioners in our community, likely contributing to the dismal statistics associated with lower extremity amputation and overall poor quality of life for those afflicted with chronic wounds.
After attending various highly regarded national conferences on advanced wound healing, we came away with some additional observations and a clearer understanding as to some glaring problems the growing specialty of wound care.
Despite the research and development of new products and technology, and the increases in evidence based findings, the vast majority of practitioners revert back to old methods, or the comfort level of the anecdotal ways of the past. Moist wound healing, for example, is the accepted standard of practice based on evidence, yet the majority of practitioners consider advanced wound care as the use of wet to dry dressings.
We concluded that practitioners were either overwhelmed and confused as to the hows and whens of using new wound products and reverted back to old methods; or, the message of advanced wound care was only reaching the same small group of practitioners, who regularly attend national wound conferences.
With these points in mind, we decided to begin a “grass roots” campaign to improve wound healing in our region by educating our colleagues, first, through the development of a continuing education program know as the Southeastern Interactive Wound Summit (SIWS). The goal of the SIWS was to bring a highest quality program with internationally known and local faculty, to our region. By including internationally known faculty, expert knowledge was guaranteed to be presented. With locally practicing faculty members, our hope was that a greater awareness of advanced wound healing occurring in our region would be recognized by attendees, and would begin facilitating change by example.
The SIWS was intended to also be a truly interactive exchange of ideas and an opportunity for attendees to learn through intensive hands-on workshops. Our goal for the first SIWS was for attendees to gain knowledge that would translate into at least 6 lower extremity amputations prevented in our region. We easily surpassed this goal and have contributed to a reduction in the financial burden implicit in amputation and long term follow up care required.
Two months after the SIWS, we held a lunch meeting for interested attendees of the conference, in an attempt to continue the dialogue that was started during the Summit. From this lunch meeting, the Wound Care Consortium of Jacksonville was born. The Wound Care Consortium of Jacksonville is an educational forum that brings practitioners together who are committed to improving wound care and helping each other through the challenges faced by wound care providers. The Wound Care Consortium of Jacksonville is quickly becoming a model organization that can be emulated in other communities.
As the Wound Care Consortium of Jacksonville has grown, we have positioned ourselves to have the resources to give our community through a unique community outreach program. The Wound Care Consortium of Jacksonville Community Outreach will provide wound care services, screenings and education to those without health insurance or who have “fallen through the cracks” in our healthcare system. The focal point of our outreach will be our 30 foot mobile unit which will serve as a hub for our services while also creating awareness of the problems encountered by our patient population.
As new issues present themselves, we will continue to address them. Our organization will continue to evolve to meet the dynamic challenges of the growing specialty of wound management.
Present
As our mission statement reflects, we are dedicated to improving the quality of life for those afflicted with wounds. The specialty of wound management is evolving rapidly, with scientific evidence and new technology being updated constantly.
Despite the advancements in wound management over the last 10 years, a large disconnect still exists in the medical community in regard to the treatment of wounds. This disconnect has been identified as being the result of multiple factors.
Firstly, advanced wound healing is not taught in most medical schools as a part of the curriculum, and is slowly finding its way into the course load of nursing school. Most physicians who are faced with treating wounds in their practices have had little exposure to advanced wound healing and have not learned of many of the advanced technologies available to their patients.
As a result, a common scenario exists where a physician must direct the wound care treatment of a patient, and ultimately defers to the use of saline moistened gauze, or the advice of a home nurse.
Another scenario exists where physicians may be aware of newer technologies available in wound management, but because of the overwhelming number of dressings and technologies, they revert back to the comfort level of saline moistened gauze dressings, and consider this wound care.
Our goal of educating healthcare providers exists because we have seen these scenarios occur frequently. We are committed to moving wound management away from “Anecdotal Chaos” towards evidence based protocols and methods proven to be efficacious. We have already begun seeing that improved outcomes and care can occur with a cooperative effort between like-minded providers and expect our impact will grow over time.