NMMC Gilmore-Amory Wound Healing & Hyperbaric Center Awarded Grant
AMORY, Mississippi – North Mississippi Medical Center Gilmore-Amory Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center has a new tool to improve outcomes and combat unnecessary antibiotic use, thanks to a grant from the Gilmore Foundation.
With the newly purchased MolecuLight Wound Imaging Platform, the wound center is able to use fluorescence imaging for detection and localization of elevated bacterial load in wounds.
“We are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to employ this new technology in our Amory center,” says Dwight McComb, M.D., medical director, NMMC-Tupelo and NMMC Gilmore-Amory Wound Care. “Moleculight has been shown to improve wound healing rates, reduce unnecessary antibiotic usage and reduce the risk of severe infection-related complications, including hospitalization and bone infection.”
The MolecuLight is non-invasive and can be used by the wound center team during regular office visits. This helps guide the physician’s clinical plan of care to promote greater healing outcomes, improve antibiotic stewardship and improve patient confidence in the treatment plan in a very tangible way. In an independent, blinded, randomized controlled trial published in 2022 in Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association, use of Moleculight improved wound healing by 204% in diabetic foot ulcers.
“Some exciting new data is showing it to be particularly useful for detecting infection in patients with darker skin tones, which can often be quite challenging,” Dr. McComb said. “We also use it in our clinic to prevent infection-related failure of our bioengineered skin substitutes. It is a wonderful tool to have in our toolbox.”
Because of a growing aging population, higher incidence of diabetes and other chronic disease states, the prevalence of chronic wounds and their associated expenditure continues to rise. Chronic wounds are especially common among the elderly population, who have impaired immune function and frequently fail to mount clinical signs and symptoms of infection.
Lorie M. Bryant, Amory Wound Healing Center program director says, “We are grateful for the generosity of the Gilmore Foundation which has allowed us to be one of the first in our area to receive this device,” said Lorie M. Bryant, Amory Wound Healing Center Program Director.
To make an appointment or for more information about how the NMMC Wound Center and Hyperbaric Center can help you, call 1-800-THE-DESK (1-800-843-3375).
