Honey has been used as a wound treatment for more than 2,000 years. Greater scientific understanding of how it works, particularly as an antibacterial agent, has led practitioners to reconsider the therapeutic value of honey. Once honey is commercially available as a regulated product in the UK, practitioners will have access to an effective, alternative wound treatment. Specific, sterilised honeys intended for wound care will provide a safe natural product to manage colonised or infected wounds that would otherwise remain unresponsive to treatment.
The results support the previously reported positive effects of honey and revealed a high patient acceptance for this treatment. Following these results, comparative clinical trials, which should also consider pain, are now recommended.
INTRODUCTION A virtual clinic is a form of telemedicine where contact between clinical teams and patients occur without face-toface consultation. Our study aims to quantify the clinical, financial and environmental benefits of our virtual urology clinic. MATERIAL AND METHODS We collected data prospectively from our weekly follow-up virtual clinic over a continuous four-month period between July and September 2017. RESULTS In total, we reviewed 409 patients. Following virtual clinic consultation, 68.5% of our patients were discharged from further follow-up. The majority of our patients (male 57.7%, female 55.5%) were of working age. The satisfaction scores were high, at 90.1%, and there were no reported adverse events as a result of using the virtual clinic. Our calculated cost savings were £18,744, with a predicted 12-month cost saving of £56,232. The creation of additional face-to-face clinic capacity has created an estimated 12-month increase in tariff generation for our unit of £72,072. In total, 4623 travel miles were avoided by patients using the virtual clinic, with an estimated avoided carbon footprint of 0.35-1.45 metric tonnes of CO 2e , depending on mode of transport. Our predicted 12-month avoided carbon footprint is 1.04-4.04 metric tonnes of CO 2e. CONCLUSIONS Our virtual clinic model has demonstrated a trifecta of positive outcomes, namely, clinical, financial and environmental benefits. The environmental importance and benefits of a virtual clinic should be promoted as a social enterprise value when engaging stakeholders in setting up such a urological service. We propose the adoption of our virtual clinic model in those urological units considering this method of telemedicine.
This case study examines the impact of a severe wound infection on a patient undergoing chemotherapy for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma. The study illustrates how life threatening an infection can become in a patient whose body is compromised as a consequence of both disease and chemotherapy treatment. A number of specialist products were required in order to overcome the infection, debride and heal the wound. These included larval therapy, vacuum-assisted closure and Leptospermum honey. While this case study focuses on the successful outcome of one particular patient it aims to raise awareness of the role of specialist products, both old and new, in improving healing rates of complex wounds.
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