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Wounds Australia in 2025: the Year in Review
Wednesday, 17 December 2025
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As we prepare to farewell another year, we look back at the past 12 months at Wounds Australia and share a few highlights we're especially proud of. We grew our networksAffiliations We welcomed new affiliates in 2025 bringing reciprocal member benefits, cross-sharing of educational resources, exciting new projects and joint advocacy opportunities. Welcome to the Lindsay Leg Club, the American Limb Preservation Society (ALPS), the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC), DEBRA Australia, Continence Health Australia, the Hong Kong Enterostomal Therapists Association, the Australasian Wound and Tissue Repair Society, and the ANZ Burns Association (ANZBA). And in the final weeks of December 2024, the signing of a collaboration document strengthened an already significant relationship with the European Wound Management Association (EWMA), while a formal affiliation with the Australasian Lymphology Association was signed, signalling the organisations' mutual intention to work more closely. 
Pictured L-R: Continence Health Australia's CEO Jim Cooper and Partnerships Lead Rosa Siderelis with Wounds Australia Board Chair Kerry May and CEO Jeff Antcliff at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in September 2025. Corporate Members We also differentiated partnership types to open access for more organisations. Four longstanding partners – Essity, Mölnlycke, Smith+Nephew and Solventum – moved to a newly created Platinum status that reflects their broad and significant support for Wounds Australia's work, including sponsorship of major events. We're grateful for our long and close working relationships with these industry leaders of excellence. Clinical partnerships allow smaller organisations working in the community to take advantage of broader membership to Wounds Australia at a more affordable rate. Read about them – as well as our many valued Gold and Silver Partners – on our Partners page. Conference attendances Our presence at other healthcare conferences peaked, extending Wounds Australia's visibility even further. We attended the conferences of ANZBA, DEBRA Australia, the New Zealand Wound Care Society, Continence Health Australia and the ALA. Read Conference Reports from DFCon, EWMA and APP. We celebrated membersMeet just a few of our incredible clinicians in these stories on Jenny Prentice and Robyn Rayner, Melissa Freeman, Cindy Williams and Christine Carr. 
Pictured: Dr Robyn Rayner accepts the 2025 WA Nursing & Midwifery Award for Excellence in Rural and Remote Nursing in May. We diversified income streamsThe team worked hard this year towards achieving the goal of financial sustainability outlined in our Strategic Plan 2024-2027, with exciting announcements around new relationships with Savers® and Flavour Creations. We made headlinesHighlights were this news story on 7 Nightly News about the launch of the International Pressure Injury Guideline in March, the Network Ten Chronic Wound Consumables Scheme (CWCS) launch story in May and the release of our consumer insights survey in June. We took chronic wound awareness to new heightsLargely spurred by activity in our consumer Be Wound Aware campaign, we reached millions of people in new and diverse channels with the information they need to stop acute wounds from becoming chronic. A landmark survey as part of this work revealed significant misconceptions standing in the way of good wound care delivery and helped us more accurately target specific groups in the right channels with appropriate messaging. Thanks are owed to Consumer Awareness Group and Clinical Expert Advisory Panel for helping us to ensure our content is easily understood, clinically correct and grounded in best practice. Explore our factsheets in six languages, culturally appropriate resources for First Nations patients courtesy of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, and resources from our generous friends at the Queensland University of Technology and ANZBA. Clinicians: did you know your patients can download all these resources for free? Read more. Activity peaked during Wound Awareness Week, which contained its usual busy schedule of morning teas, free Lunch Bytes webinars and events around the country. We engaged decision-makersExpertly supported by London Agency, we have enjoyed considerable contact with key policymakers and government departments this year. We launched the CWCS with Minister Mark Butler MP in Adelaide in May, marking the culmination of many years of work by Wounds Australia's members to bring such a scheme to fruition. We were delighted when Minister Butler agreed to open our wound care roundtable at Parliament House in Canberra during Wound Awareness Week in September, which saw us demonstrate sector leadership by bringing together government, other peak bodies, clinicians and industry to find solutions to our chronic wound epidemic. Our host Professor Fiona Wood AO and clinicians from a range of care settings laid out the challenges for MPs attending an informal networking session and lunch, generating enthusiasm for the subject beyond traditional supporters. We appreciate their passion and, in particular, the Minister's ongoing commitment to reducing the national burden of chronic wounds. 
Pictured: Attendees to the Wound Awareness Week roundtable at Parliament House in September. Regular meetings with the Department of Health, Ageing and Disability on the progress of our Be Wound Aware consumer education campaign continue to be extremely positive, and a valuable chance for both parties to provide feedback and communicate openly. Finally, ongoing funding would help meet a priority goal of financial sustainability, as outlined in the Strategic Plan, while delivering benefits to consumers and clinicians through more education, more targeted advice from telehealth services, and improved wound care in aged care settings. Read the Wounds Australia Pre-Budget Submission 2026. We helped spread best practice around AustraliaIn a packed events schedule organised by our hardworking volunteer State and Territory Committees, we took best-practice wound care around the country. Highlights included a Northern Territory tour delivering wound care fundamentals to clinicians in Darwin and Alice Springs and a wave of events around the country during Lymphoedema Awareness Month. Read our round-up. We also supported expert-led training offered by our partners including Ausmed, and we announced an exciting new annual observance, in conjunction with partners, on 19 February focused on lower limb swelling. Find out more about Beat the Swell. We brought value to membersWe're always looking for new and exciting benefits for our valued members. This year we brought them a series of opportunities to volunteer on committees to build their networks and enhance their résumes, including the Compression Therapy Committee, representing Wounds Australia in a project with EWMA, the VLUG Committee, the Pressure Injury Guideline Committee, the Credentialling Committee and the Wounds Australia 2026 Conference Scientific Program Committee. We offered several competitions to new and renewing members, including an amazing sample pack from Silver Partner Dermal Therapy, plus the chance to win a Wounds Australia 2026 Conference registration or a free membership courtesy of Gold Partner Ausmed. And we continue to add to our extensive webinar library – an exclusive benefit of membership to Australia's national peak body for chronic wounds. We helped advance wound care practiceThanks to our incredible Research Committee for its work this year on a project with EWMA to standardise global wound care terminology and a range of other research, and to Wound Practice and Research Journal joint Editors-in-Chief Dr Peta Tehan and Dr Zlatko Kopecki for producing four new issues packed with 20+ articles from a range of amazing experts. 
We also launched The International Pressure Injury Guideline in the Australian market (pictured) and facilitated the work of the team who produce it, and support committees responsible for:
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