PROGRAM
Explore an engaging program designed to inspire new thinking, share practical insights and encourage meaningful connections. Featuring expert speakers, interactive sessions and opportunities for discussion and collaboration, the program will offer a valuable learning experience for everyone attending.
Thursday 11 February 2027
1400 - 1700 | Registration Open |
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1830 - 1930 | AWSA WELCOME RECEPTION Networking with industry and attendees (Included in full registration) |
Friday 12 February 2027
0730 | Registration Open |
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0830 - 0900 | |
0900 - 1100 | Join experienced clinicians for a focused exploration of complex wounds—why they become difficult to heal, how medical, surgical and psychological factors shape outcomes, and how to recognise atypical presentations. Through expert insights, a consumer’s lived experience and panel discussion, you’ll strengthen your assessment, challenge outdated assumptions and leave with practical strategies for managing fungating, malignant, draining, dehisced and other atypical wounds. |
1100 - 1130 | MORNING TEA & EXHIBITION |
1130 - 1300 | Advances in wound care technology are accelerating at a pace that is reshaping clinical practice, offering unprecedented opportunities to enhance healing outcomes while challenging clinicians to discern true value from innovation driven noise. This session will explore how new tools, from AI enabled diagnostics to point of care devices and digital intelligence at the bedside, can be meaningfully integrated into real world workflows. We will examine what remains essential in foundational clinical assessment, where AI and device-based technologies genuinely add value, and how clinicians can appraise emerging products using real world evidence rather than marketing claims.
The program will spotlight therapeutic innovations, and new approaches to wound assessment, diabetes foot disease and the evolving role of digital and point of care technologies in modern wound management. This forward-looking session will explore the rapidly expanding landscape of advanced and emerging wound care providing clinicians with confidence and clarity to navigate these developments. |
1300 - 1345 | LUNCH & EXHIBITION |
1345 - 1415 | |
1415 - 1545 | Session 4: Pressure injuries: What are we missing?  This session will examine why pressure injuries persist despite established guidelines and available equipment.
Beginning with a clinical case study that highlights gaps between policy and practice, expert presentations will then explore skin biomechanics, positioning and support surfaces; the relationship between patient anatomy, equipment selection, shared ownership and holistic care; pressure injury staging, differential diagnosis and translating guidelines across acute, aged and community settings; and skin failure in acute, chronic and end-of-life care, including hypoperfusion, tissue tolerance and coding.
The session will also discuss communication breakdowns during transitions of care, risk screening, early intervention, post-healing monitoring and ongoing prevention, before concluding with a multidisciplinary panel discussing the single greatest barrier to effective pressure injury prevention and care and practical ways to address. |
1545 - 1615 | AFTERNOON TEA & EXHIBITION |
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1615 - 1645 | Session 4 continued |
1645 - 1745 | Strong partnerships between clinicians and industry are essential to advancing wound care. This interactive forum brings both perspectives together to explore innovation, emerging technologies and the challenges shaping contemporary wound management.
Hear from industry partners through peer-reviewed presentations, then join an open discussion exploring this year’s focus on planetary health and environmental sustainability, including waste, packaging, product stewardship and responsible innovation.
With patient outcomes as our shared priority, the forum provides a space for respectful, transparent and evidence-informed dialogue; sharing perspectives, challenging ideas and identifying practical opportunities for clinicians and industry to work better together.
Come prepared to listen, contribute and help shape future priorities for wound care. |
1745 | CLOSE OF DAY 1 |
1800 - 1820 | CLASS PHOTO |
1830 - 2030 | ASWA SUNSET SOIREE Waterfront Pantry, 1 Gheringhap Street, Geelong (Additional fees apply) |
Saturday 13 February 2027
0800 | Registration and Exhibition Open |
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0900 | Day 2: Welcome |
0900 - 1100 | This session examines the recognition, investigation and management of complex dermatological presentations, with a practical focus on integrating clinical assessment, pathology, microbiology and pharmacotherapy. Participants will explore atypical disease patterns, emerging treatment options and evidence-based approaches to safe, effective care. Key considerations include red flags, evolving lesion morphology, unusual distributions, systemic associations and features that warrant further investigation, specialist referral or escalation of care.
Discussion will also focus on compounded medicines and emerging topical therapies, integrated diagnostic approaches, and the clinical impact of dermatological pharmacotherapy. The session will also address the issue of self-compounding of medication for topical use and its implications. |
1100 - 1130 | MORNING TEA & EXHIBITION |
1130 - 1300 | In 2025, the AWSA Summer School explored the powerful connection between mind and body. In 2027, we will take this important conversation further by examining the often-overlooked psychological and social impact of living with a chronic wound.
How do chronic wounds influence stress, anxiety, social connection and the experience of pain? How might neurodivergence or mental health challenges affect an individual’s wound care journey? And why might a person living with dementia communicate pain, discomfort or distress differently?
This engaging session will explore the experiences of a diverse range of individuals, including people living with neurodivergence, mental health challenges and dementia. It will also consider the significant impact that chronic wounds can have on families and carers.
Moving from understanding to practical action, participants will explore effective communication strategies to support positive behaviour change and consider how trauma-informed care can be incorporated into wound management.
The session will conclude with practical tips, assessment tools and referral strategies that wound practitioners can apply in everyday practice to better recognise psychosocial needs, respond with confidence and provide truly person-centred care. |
1300 - 1345 | LUNCH & EXHIBITION |
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1345 - 1415 | |
1415 - 1515 | Healthcare professionals regularly care for patients experiencing pain, trauma and loss. Over time, repeated exposure to these experiences can contribute to compassion fatigue, secondary trauma and burnout, often without clinicians recognising the early warning signs.
We will explore the differences between burnout and compassion fatigue, discuss how secondary trauma affects healthcare professionals, and present practical strategies for building resilience, establishing healthy professional boundaries and maintaining emotional well-being throughout a demanding clinical career. |
1515 - 1545 | AFTERNOON TEA & EXHIBITION |
1545 - 1645 | The burden of hard‑to‑heal wounds drives repeated GP visits, hospitalisation and avoidable suffering. Yet the biggest barrier to better outcomes isn’t necessarily clinical knowledge, it’s outdated funding rules, fragmented pathways, and a model of care that makes multidisciplinary wound care difficult to deliver and even harder for patients to access.
As new approaches like the chronic wound consumables scheme emerge, we must ask whether they genuinely reduce financial barriers, improve healing, and deliver value, or simply shift cost around the system.
This session confronts the economics of wound care and challenges us to rethink who delivers care, how we fund it, and what “value” should mean for people living with chronic wounds. |
1645 - 1700 | |
1700 | CLOSE OF AWSA SUMMER SCHOOL 2027 |
Program is correct at time of publishing and is subject to change at the discretion of the AWSA Board
About AWSA
The Australian Wound & Skin Alliance is an alliance of wound clinicians and researchers who are passionate about collaboration, critical inquiry, discussion, debate and learning. The Alliance was formed through a bond of dedication and commitment to foster an environment where clinicians have opportunities for mentorship, understanding of ethical practices and to develop friendships and networks.
#AWSA2027
