One Burn One Standard

The recent development of software for supporting burn treatment has induced a rethinking of current medical documentation processes of burns. In past, the lack of comparability, scientific evaluation possibilities and – as a consequence – missing medical evidence in this field of medicine showed an increasing urgency to deal with this topic. Advanced electronic possibilities to improve the quality of burn treatment have been developed and shown in recent publications. During the 2013 meeting of the American Burns Association (ABA) the Organization for Delivery of Burn Care (ODBC) has decided to form a task force to establish an international standard for documentation of burns. This international intention was started by a kick-off meeting of people working in data documentation. Later on, a presentation was given on the need for an international data collection standard in burn care in the plenary session. Another session discussed practical aspects of defining such standards. The way how to develop this effort to an open, international level has been chosen: Modern internet based media should guarantee open access to interested parties after registration. It has been decided to create a wiki to be able to discuss the issues in a structured manner. In a first step, the support of national and international burn societies will be attempted to form a common intention and to reach consensus on the outmost level. The task force “One Burn One Standard” (OBOS ) has been formed and provides the organizational structure of the online platform www.oneburnonestandard.org and of the project. The second step should be a definition of work packages and a prioritization of the separate projects. The aim is to define the medical and technical standards on an international level. An overview of the project and the current state of development will be presented.