Index: Ostomy Wound Manage 2001;47(11)

There is nothing past for which one may yearn, there is only an eternal newness which is shaped by the wider elements of the past and true nostalgia has always to be productive to create a new excellence. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  A few weeks ago, my husband and I were driving back to Canada after visiting our family in the US. As usual, we tuned into talk radio. After listening to a lecture on "modernity" – a completely new term for me – I began to ponder how the term could be applied to ostomy supplies and the way individuals with an ostomy live in the 21st century.

  Hooker¹ defines modernity as the sense or idea that the present is discontinuous with the past. Due to a process of social and cultural change (either through improvement or decline) life in the present is fundamentally different from life in the past.¹ This is the opposite of tradition, which is simply the sense that the present is continuous with the past, repeating its forms, behavior, and events.

Index: Ostomy Wound Manage 2001;47(11):13–16

  In the September 2001 issue of Ostomy/Wound Management, Alan J. Cantor, DPM, CWS, FACFAOM, Diplomat of the American Board of Podiatric Orthopedics, was recognized for his passion for learning and teaching, as well as for establishing a humanitarian project in the Caribbean. He never imagined that he would be asked to share his thoughts again so soon, especially on such devastating events. A decorated volunteer fireman accustomed to responding to many accidents and catastrophic emergencies in his 23 years of service, Dr. Cantor was awarded the Medal of Valor for his role as triage commander at the crash site of Avianca Flight 52 in January 1990 in Cove Neck, NY. The following is Dr. Cantor's account of the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Index: Ostomy Wound Manage 2001;47(11):28–34

  Prevalence is a cross-sectional count of the number of cases of a medical condition at a specific point in time. Incidence is the number of new cases occurring over a given time period. A prevalence and incidence study is a combination of two studies that, when done consecutively, provides a facility with key statistics on patients with an existing medical condition and on those who acquire that condition during their stay.

  Wide variation exists in the prevalence and incidence rates of pressure ulcers reported in the medical and nursing literature. The reasons for the variation in the rates are multiple; they include differences in the population of patients studied, differences in data collection and study methodology, and differences in the quality of care provided. Data collected from patients in tertiary care hospitals may not be comparable with data from residents in long-term care facilities (LTCFs).

Index: Ostomy Wound Manage 2001;47(11):44–51

  The 7th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Wound Care met in London, Ontario, November 1 through 3. The focus of the conference was "The Many Faces of Wound Caring: Interdisciplinary Teams Providing Patient-Centered Care." Ostomy/Wound Management is fortunate to have received a number of rigorously reviewed abstracts presented at CAWC that illustrate the breadth and depth of research relevant to wound care. These abstracts were selected for publication by an interdisciplinary abstract review committee comprising a total of seven of the authors' peers. An equal number of abstracts were selected from oral and poster presentations. In publishing these abstracts, the editors hope to increase attention to the issues they address, expedite necessary changes to care protocols, and stimulate further research efforts among clinicians who may take the value of their day-to-day accumulation of knowledge for granted.