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October 23, 2003
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Media Contact: |
Mike Andrei
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Dr. Thomas Stewart, Daemen College Trustee and President, Gaymar Industries, Inc., Receives National Honor
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March 10, 2003 – At the 8th National Conference of the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel held in New Orleans, LA, Dr. Thomas Stewart, President of Gaymar Industries, Inc. was recipient of a newly created award named after him, the Dr. Thomas Stewart Award. In addition to his role as president of Gaymar Industries, Dr. Stewart is also a trustee of Daemen College. He holds two degrees – in chemistry and biology – from Daemen.
This award will be given out biannually to recognize outstanding contributions in the Pressure Ulcer arena. Dr. Stewart received the award for his outstanding leadership, public policy, education and research as it relates to pressure ulcers, commonly known as bedsores. Dr. Stewart, founded the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) when he identified the need for a board in the United States to provide valid information and guidelines to treat pressure ulcers. The NPUAP had its origins in 1987 when Dr. Stewart brought together 15 of the Nations leading clinical and research experts to Gaymars corporate headquarters in Orchard Park, NY to share his vision, and to craft the mission and bylaws of the new organization. As a result, Dr. Stewart created the now renowned United States NPUAP, and has assisted Europe in setting up the EPUAP, a pressure ulcer panel there. I am very pleased to receive this honor; but most important, I am pleased about the progress the panel has made in making pressure ulcers a medical condition where prevention is the preferred standard of care. The U.S. Panel published the tenets of pressure ulcer prevention and treatment, lobbied Congress and succeeded in having language addressing pressure ulcers written in to the Budget Reconciliation Act, lobbied the National Science Foundation to have pressure ulcers earmarked as a national health problem to be solved, and lobbied the National Institutes of Health to put pressure ulcers on the schedule for consensus development conferences. The NPUAP provides expert advice to the National Institutes of Health to be used for consensus conferences in establishing guidelines in the treatment of pressure ulcer management. Leading physicians, researchers, nurses and health professionals comprising the NPUAP, set the standards of care for the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers for the U.S. In addition, Dr. Stewart was recently named Department Editor for the medical journal WOUNDS. |