The Impact of an International Educational Program on Transforming Practice and Outcomes in Scar Management

Or: Caring through sharing 


OBJECTIVES: 
Scar Academy is an international educational program for healthcare professionals dedicated to the understanding and treatment of (burn) scar. Scar Academy was developed by Oscare in 2010, with the aim of transforming practices and outcomes in scar management. Since its founding nine years ago, Scar Academy has organized several events in Belgium, Netherlands, the UK and Germany.
After every course post-course evaluations were asked from the participants. Key messages and lessons learnt from this process and the post course evaluation results will be presented. 


METHODS:
At this moment over 1000 people from 27 countries attended one or more Scar Academy events. Lectures were delivered by an international faculty on a wide variety of scar related subjects, including workshops. Survey results included an online pre-course questionnaire and a post course evaluation (response rate 87% UK, 70% DACH, Belgium?). 


RESULTS:
Results indicate that Scar Academy did deliver new knowledge and improve the participants trust in their newly acquired abilities (UK +23%, DACH +37%, Belgium?) . The knowledge / background of the participants about the various treatment options, especially in the non-invasive and semi-invasive area, was greatly expanded by the course, which lead to the implementation of new treatments. Scar Academy was worldwide extremely well received, 87% of participants (98% UK, 75% DACH) would recommend Scar Academy to a colleague. A number of further potential projects have developed out of this event and collaboration with international partners.


CONCLUSION:
When a relevant, high quality international course is delivered to the right audience in collaboration with local partners the impact can be highly effective and efficient. 

Future events are microneedling mastercourse in November 2019, a European Scar Conference in June 2020 and a Global Scar meeting in Tokyo November 2020


Oscare, Organisation for burns, scar after-care and research, Antwerp, Belgium
DACH = Germany, Austria and Switzerland

6 - The Impact of an International Educational Program on Transforming Practice and Outcomes in Scar Management: Are there Regional Differences?