01/14/2026
Are your wound care providers advanced wound care certified?
I recently completed my 10-year board recertification as a Certified Wound Specialist Physician (CWSP), and it reinforced an important truth: advanced wound care certification is not optional. It is essential.
Certification establishes clinical credibility, supports high-quality outcomes, strengthens program legitimacy, and provides the foundation needed to advocate effectively with hospital leadership, payers, and policymakers. For surgeons and physicians, advanced wound care certification is a critical step toward advancing wound care as a recognized specialty—rather than allowing it to remain a fragmented or ancillary service line.
This additional step moves our field closer to ABMS-level recognition, which remains a key goal. Given the significant clinical, regulatory, and reimbursement changes we are currently facing, formal recognition is no longer aspirational. It is necessary.
When wound care programs lack medically led, advanced wound–certified leadership, both providers and organizations are placed at a strategic disadvantage. Elevating one’s primary specialty through advanced wound care certification strengthens interdisciplinary collaboration, improves patient outcomes, and accelerates progress toward sustainable specialty recognition.
I am pleased to continue working with the American Professional Wound Care Association (APWCA) as they develop structured, physician-led, provider-focused training programs to expand access to high-quality wound care education. I also value organizations such as United Wound Healing that support formal educational rotations and interdisciplinary training models—critical components of a unified, well-represented, and future-ready wound care workforce.
Wound care certification is foundational—not only for individual professional development, but for the advancement, recognition, and long-term protection of our specialty.
