About WHAM Collaborative.
WHAM Collaborative mission.
Our mission is to facilitate excellence in wound healing and management in Australia and internationally to enable all individuals with or at risk of wounds to achieve their goals of care and maintain their quality of life. Our mission extends to contributing to evidence to guide wound prevention and management in low and middle resource communities.
WHAM Collaborative focus.
The primary focus of WHAM Collaborative is:
Evidence synthesis.
Translational research.
WHAM Collaborative focuses on evidence synthesis. We are currently engaged in national and international collaborations that focus on the development of wound-related clinical guidelines, consensus documents, rapid evidence summaries and other high-level wound practice guidance. This work is underpinned by the methodological experience of the WHAM team and our dedication to advancing evidence-based clinical guidance available for wound specialists, wound generalists, patients and their families.
Opportunities for translational research emerge from existing evidence synthesis projects, as well as arising from the previous work of our team. Our current and previous work on evidence summaries and clinical guidelines leads to opportunities for translating clinical guidance into knowledge resources, auditing tools, health pathways and decision-making tools to assist clinicians to implement evidence-based recommendations on wound healing and management in their clinical practice.
“So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.”
— Florence Nightingale
WHAM Collaborative team.
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Professor Keryln Carville, RN, PhD, STN(Cred), CF, Fellow Wounds Australia
Keryln is the Professor of Primary Health Care and Community Nursing at Silver Chain Group and Curtin University, Western Australia. She is the Deputy Lead of the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) Inflammation, Infection and Wounds Domain and Lead of the Wounds Group. She is a lead investigator on WHAM research projects, delivers undergraduate and postgraduate wound curriculum and supervises post graduate students.
Keryln has extensive clinical experience in wound and ostomy care and is committed to research and education within the domains. Keryln Chairs the Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance and was a Guideline Governance Group member for the development of the International Pressure Injury Guideline 2014 and 2019 (and the forthcoming 2025 edition). She co-ordinates the Curtin University Postgraduate Program of Wound, Ostomy and Continence Practice in Australia and Singapore. She was appointed a Fellow of Wounds Australia in 2006 and a Life Member of the Australian Association of Stomal Therapy Nurses in 2015. She was awarded a World Union of Wound Healing Societies Life Achievement Award in 2022 and the Western Australian Life-Time Achievement in Nursing Award in 2010. Keryln is a Churchill Fellow 1995. Keryln has over 130 peer-reviewed publications and texts.
Keryln’s research interests include: prevention and management of acute and chronic wounds, promotion of recovery and rehabilitation of persons with an ostomy, the development of standards, guidelines and evidence summaries. She has a particular interest in advancing best practice in wound and ostomy care in low resource countries.
Read her publications:
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Professor Emily Haesler, PhD, Post Grad Dip Adv Nurs (Gerontics), BN, Fellow Wounds Australia
Emily is an Adjunct Professor at Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI). She leads the development of the WHAM evidence summaries, is a lead investigator on WHAM research projects and supervises post graduate and research students.
Emily is an international methodologist with extensive expertise in developing clinical practice guidelines and consensus documents, including the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel, European Pressure Injury Advisory Panel and Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance’s 2014, 2019 and forthcoming 2025 International Pressure Injury Guidelines, the Australian Wound Management Association and New Zealand Wound Care Society’s Venous Leg Ulcer Guideline, the Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance Pressure Injury Guideline and the Australian Wound Standards.Emily has joint appointments as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Australian Centre for Evidence Based Aged Care at La Trobe University and as an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University Medical School. She is a Committee member for the International Wound Infection Institute and the World Alliance for Wound and Lymphoedema Care, and was appointed a Fellow of Wounds Australia in 2021. Emily has over 130 peer-reviewed publications . Emily’s research interests include research methodology and evidence synthesis, low-middle resource wound practice, consumer engagement, reflective practice, staff-family relationships and dementia care.
Read her publications:
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Associate Professor Naomi Trengove, PhD BSc Hons
Dr Naomi Trengove is an Associate Professor and the Director of Learning and Teaching at Curtin School of Nursing. Naomi originally graduated as a Registered Nurse from the Royal Adelaide Hospital went on to complete her BSc with a major in Biochemistry, First Class Honours in Molecular Biology, and a PhD in the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, at University of Western Australia (UWA).
Naomi’s PhD and post-doctoral work combined her clinical nursing and biochemistry skills to investigate the cause of impaired healing in chronic venous leg ulcers. This research involved the collection of clinical samples of wound fluid and tissue biopsies from patients, and the management and implementation of several clinical research trials testing therapies to stimulate wound healing, using a double-blind placebo control format. Her laboratory based biochemical analysis of wound fluid and immunohistochemistry of tissue biopsies investigated factors known to affect tissue repair, including inflammatory cytokines, growth factors, proteases, and cytotoxic mediators such as lysolecithin and nitric oxide. This research contributed to greater understanding of the aetiology of chronic venous leg ulcers.
Following her post doc, Naomi took up an academic role at UWA working with the Hartmann Human Lactation Research Group, moving into a learning and teaching role as Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at UWA. She then moved on to take up the role of Dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, for 9 years before moving to Curtin School of Nursing as the Director of Learning and Teaching.Read her publications:
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Dr Sharon MacLean, PhD, RN/RM, Post Grad Dip (Midwifery), Masters Midwifery, Post Grad Dip (Wound, Ostomy and Continence)
Dr Sharon MacLean is a lecturer of Wound and Ostomy Care, Midwifery and Bioscience at Curtin University. Sharon has extensive teaching and clinical experience in simulation-based education, emergency nursing, midwifery and wound and ostomy care and is committed to research and education within these domains. Sharon co-ordinates the Curtin University Undergraduate Unit of Wound and Ostomy care in Perth. Sharon has a PhD in simulation-based education with a focus on communication and improving patient outcomes upon discharge from a tertiary health care setting.
Sharon has peer reviewed journal publications and has delivered national education presentations. Sharon also works in aged care in Perth. Sharon’s focus is on improving wound care outcomes and reducing factors associated with chronic wounds.Read her publications:
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Associate Professor Vicki Patton, RN, PhD
Dr Vicki Patton is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment at Curtin University and Royal Perth Bentley Group. Her role is to develop evidence based nursing practise within the acute care setting and to supervise higher degree research nursing students. Vicki’s area of specialty is continence, pelvic floor dysfunction and stomaltherapy.
Vicki holds adjunct positions with University of Sydney and Edith Cowan University. Vicki is the Editor of the Journal of Stomaltherapy Australia and on the editorial board of Colorectal Disease U.K. She is on the National Committee of the Australian Association of Stomaltherapy Nursing (AASTN) and on the Education Committee for the World Council Of Enterostomal Therapists (WCET).Read her publications:
Our Legacy
Emeritus Professor Robin Watts started the WHAM Collaborative as a collaborating JBI node. Prior to her retirement, Pofessor Watts had an extensive and illustrious nursing and midwifery career nationally and internationally in Brunei, Canada, Honduras, Hong Kong, Rwanda, Thailand and Taiwan. Professor Watts was appointed as Member of the Order of Australia for her services to nursing education and health ethics in 2010. In 2011 she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in the WA Nurses and Midwives Excellence Awards. She had a special interest in wound care in low resource communities and continued to administer the WHAM Collaborative for many years after her formal retirement.