Corstrata http://corstrata.com a virtual wound management company founded by Katherine Piette and Joseph Ebberwein is celebrating the company’s one year anniversary. The founders’ initial goal was to make an impact in the $33 billion wound care market since both had worked for decades with thousands of patients, practitioners, and administrators who struggled to heal complex wounds.
The growing number of wound patients in the U.S is being driven by an aging population and on-going increases in chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and renal failure. There are over 6.5 million wound patients today but by 2020 that number is estimated to grow to 8.7 million.
Today, the current deficit in available Certified Wound Specialist nurses is severe. To adequately address current wound care needs in healthcare facilities and home health care, 27,900 expert wound nurses are needed but there are only 5,400 currently in practice.
Corstrata now makes wound care nurses’ expertise available through remote consultations, and this enables the company to extend expert consultations to patients in underserved locations such as in rural areas.
The company specializes in using patient consultations via telemedicine. Corstrata wound care nurses conduct video consultations with patients in their home, in a healthcare facility, or at their doctor’s office.
With Corstrata’s mobile application, wound characteristics are analyzed, tracked, and documented. Appropriate wound management strategies and dressing options are recommended plus patient follow-up is scheduled on a routine and as-needed basis.
In the future, it will be possible to capture information regarding the most effective treatments along with wound management strategies. This will enable the company to do predictive analytics to predetermine which treatment protocols and practices are most effective for a variety of diagnoses. Also, Corstrata plans to expand into new states to form wound care hubs to serve clusters of home health agencies and other consortia-type healthcare providers and administrators.