ABSTRACT
The future of wound care is influenced by factors such as population trends, demographics, economics, healthcare providers, suppliers, technological/medical advances and regulations. One important technological trend is the permeation of artificial intelligence in healthcare. In wound care, small steps have already been taken towards its use in wound monitoring, diagnosis and treatment delivery, but we are still a long way from fully integrated systems. Many challenges lie ahead before this can be achieved, but there may also be significant opportunities for businesses to innovate and bring added value to their customers. The nature of business is changing in advanced wound care, and some of these changes are discussed here. The traditional model of offering value based on the manufacture of a product may become obsolete for some businesses. Services, support or intelligence are examples of what can supplement core product offerings to provide added value. The old way of inventing and developing everything in-house is also declining, favouring instead collaborations of all sorts and acquisitions as strategies for new product launch and growth. The previous predictability of responding to a demand needs also be reviewed in favour of proactively participating in prevention programmes.
