Chronic wound patients get new hope from Calgary health tech company

Calgary Herald

5 days ago

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It could also change lives. Chronic wounds have been a scourge of health care for millennia; signs of pressure sores have been found in Egyptian mummies, Florence Nightingale reportedly said that a bed sore was 'generally not the fault of the disease, but of nursing.' Still, chronic wounds continue to keep millions of patients in hospital, in treatment, in discomfort and at risk.
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Doing something to change the trajectory of chronic wounds became a mission of Julian Mulia, a chemical engineer originally from Mexico, who was inspired to look for solutions after losing both parents to chronic conditions, including managing wounds. He is chief operating officer of Calgary-based NanoTess. Co-founder Megan Leslie is CEO.
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The company describes its salve as a catalyst that uses the body's natural healing reactions to promote faster healing and reduce inflammation.
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'Essentially, when a body is trying to heal a wound, it's like pushing a rock up a mountain. And a lot of us don't of the energy or resources to help make that (healing) reaction go to completion, which is where you get into chronic wound territory and your body just can't heal itself,' said Larissa Lalonde, strategy lead at the company.
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What the salve does, Lalonde said, is lower the energy it takes to heal the wound 'so that more of those healing reactions can take place faster and better.'
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During a provincial commercialization project funded by the CAN Health Network and conducted by Alberta Health Services and the University of Calgary, integrating the product into treatment improved wound healing in chronic wounds by 57.6 per cent. Those were wounds that had not healed for an average of more than one and a half years.
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Bruyère, which has the largest specialty wound treatment unit as well as the only complex care facility in eastern Ontario, is also part of the CAN Health Network, a federally funded agency that supports Canadian health-care innovation. Based on validation by the Alberta Health Service, it tried out the product earlier this year, and it now plans to expand its use, DeZeeuw said.
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'My goal is to get it throughout Bruyère Health,' she said. 'It has the potential to really help a lot of people.' Other nearby hospitals and long-term care homes are also looking at it, she said, and it is being used across Canada.
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'To my knowledge, there has not been a really significant breakthrough that has kind of flipped wound care on its head — at least since I have been in medical training,' DeZeeuw said. 'I am hopeful that this ends up being really helpful for at least a significant proportion of patients.'
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That includes many people in hospital beds and long-term care homes across the country suffering from chronic bed sores, diabetic foot ulcers and complex surgical incisions. In some cases, chronic wounds keep them bedridden or away from their homes and families.
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When a body is trying to heal a wound, it's like pushing a rock up a mountain. And a lot of us don't of the energy or resources to help make that (healing) reaction go to completion.
Larissa Lalonde
'Often you suffer alone if you are dealing with a wound,' said Lalonde of NanoTess. 'It is not something that people typically talk openly about. But, when you do start to talk about it with friends or family, you realize how widespread this issue is.'