People with a stoma and healthcare professionals still face significant challenges every day. To solve them, we work closely with both groups of people to find better solutions.

Engaging with healthcare professionals
The Coloplast Ostomy Forum (COF) is a global network for stoma care nurses. The forum plays a key role in our product development and is used to identify, discuss and prioritize user needs. It is also a forum for evaluating new concepts and ensuring that our products meet these needs.

Opening new doors with user-driven innovation
To understand the daily routines and challenges people with a stoma face, our R&D staff visit them in their homes and follow their daily activities and routines – even in the bathroom. This process helps us to understand their challenges and translate their needs into effective solutions.

To encourage more people to provide input, we also support the online innovation community www.innovationbyyou.com. In this community, people share ideas or join the Innovation Challenges forum, where passionate end users and entrepreneurs co-develop new solutions.

Listening and responding since 1954
Working closely with healthcare professionals and the people who use our products is nothing new at Coloplast. In fact, the way we work today started in 1954. Elise Sørensen was a community nurse. Her sister Thora had just had a stoma operation and was afraid to go out, fearing that her stoma might leak in public. So Elise created the world’s first adhesive stoma bag, giving Thora – and thousands of people like her – the chance to enjoy life again. A simple solution with great significance. 

Health economics

In the healthcare sector, resources are always considered scarce. This drives us at Coloplast to deliver treatment and care solutions that provide the most value for money.

Within stoma care, we focus on reducing total treatment costs. Total treatment costs take into consideration not only the price of a stoma appliance, but also the use of accessories and the costs of treating stoma-related complications.

One of the main issues in stoma care is peristomal skin complications caused by stomal output and stoma appliance application, use and removal. Treatment of skin complications requires a great deal of nursing time, thus the total resource consumption increases with the level of peristomal skin complications.

Factoring in these kinds of costs when considering different stoma appliances shows that, while there may be a significant difference in initial stoma appliance costs, the total costs can even out – or even be lower – for the more expensive stoma appliance.

Total costs are lower with the higher-priced stoma appliance, due to better performance and thus less use of accessories and a lower need for additional treatment.

A published health economic analysis shows a 38% reduction in costs associated with treating peristomal skin complications when using SenSura products in evidence-based stoma care nursing. Martins et al. 2012.

For more information, please contact your local sales representative.

DialogueStudy

The DialogueStudy is a global clinical study designed to document real life experiences of Coloplast’s SenSura stoma appliances. The study focused on skin conditions and quality of life. With more than 3,000 patients and 500 nurses involved, the DialogueStudy is the largest study ever undertaken within stoma care and was carried out from 2006 to 2010.

The global results show that many people with a stoma have peristomal skin problems, and that a combination of evidence-based nursing and the use of SenSura meant reduced incidents of leakages, less unplanned changes, and an increased feeling of security.

Local DialogueStudy results

If you’d like to know more about the DialogueStudy, please contact your local Coloplast office.

Coloplast QoL

The Stoma Quality of Life tool (Stoma-QoL) is a simple, validated questionnaire that can be used to measure quality of life in people with a stoma. It also helps identify the issues that may cause anxiety or concern. Learn more about the Stoma Quality of Life tool

Ostomy Skin Tool

The Ostomy Skin Study showed that peristomal skin conditions are very common in people with a stoma, and that these conditions can have a negative impact on quality of life. It also showed that many people with a stoma are not aware that they have a skin condition and therefore don’t consult their stoma care nurse. The study was carried out in Denmark in 2004 and involved 199 patients. The study was the background for the larger DialogueStudy.

The Ostomy Skin Tool is a validated tool designed to provide an efficient method for determining the cause and severity of peristomal skin conditions. It also provides recommendations on how to monitor and manage these conditions.

BodyFit Technology is our new innovation platform within ostomy care. The knowledge that no two bodies are the same is at the core of our thinking and drives us on in our quest to design and develop solutions that can fit securely and comfortably to any body shape. We call this human-centric innovation.

The same but different

Human bodies share the same basic form but vary infinitely in terms of size and shape. What’s more, bodies don’t remain constant. We lose weight, or put it on. Our stomachs can bloat, our muscles contract. We move around, often vigorously. For some people, there are also hernias and scarring to consider.

The challenge is made all the more pressing by the knowledge that appliances that don’t fit securely to the body are a major cause of leakage – often the wearer’s biggest concern. By taking our starting point in people’s needs, Coloplast has set out on a journey to develop products that deliver a close fit to the peristomal area.

BodyFit Technology now and in the futureThe BodyFit Technology platform is already having a positive impact. For instance, SenSura Mio features the first elastic adhesive that gives the appliance greater fitting performance. But our work continues. We dedicate all of our R&D resources to the platform, and seek to forge more meaningful connections with the people who use our products and the healthcare professionals who work with them.

By working together we can learn more about the needs and challenges that exist and speed up the development of products and materials that can make a true difference in people’s lives.