Leading US wound care practitioners agree that point of care diagnostic tests developed specifically to aid chronic wound care could dramatically change the provision of care, especially in outpatient settings1,2. WOUNDCHEK™ Protease Status is the world’s first point of care test to detect elevated protease activity (EPA) in chronic wounds. A chronic wound with EPA has a 90% probability it won’t heal without appropriate protease modulating intervention3. Recent studies have further shown that chronic wounds with EPA carry a significantly higher probability of graft failure than chronic wounds with low protease activity4,5.
WOUNDCHEK™ Bacterial Status is being developed to assess bacterial protease activity6 the presence of which in a chronic wound would be indicative of bacterial pathogenesis which is a precursor to clinical signs and symptoms of infection7,8, indicating that the wound is at a stage of the wound infection continuum that typically requires intervention.
Jack Wilkens, CEO and president of WOUNDCHEK™ Laboratories, commented: "Our vision is to provide clinicians with accurate, timely, actionable, and easy to access information, leading to improved therapeutic outcomes and more cost effective care through point of care wound diagnostics. Currently, the cost of ineffective treatment is estimated to be $20-25 billion annually. We believe that our efforts so far over the past 5 years and the clinical trials planned this summer bring us closer than ever to introducing wound diagnostics to the US market."
WOUNDCHEK™ Laboratories was formed in October 2013 from the Diagnostics business of Systagenix and is now owned by several external investors and company management.
