Associate Professor Asha Bowen and Program Manager Marianne Mullane led the development of the National Healthy Skin Guideline in 2018
The first ever National Healthy Skin Guideline has become the gold standard for the treatment, prevention and public health control of skin infections in Indigenous populations in Australia and provides a positive framework for healthy skin.
Associate Professor Asha Bowen can’t help but smile hugely every time she walks into a remote health clinic and sees posters and charts created by her team up on the walls.
As Head of the Skin Health Team at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, based at The Kids, she led the development of the first ever National Healthy Skin Guideline, released by the Institute in 2018.
Endorsed by 18 contributing organisations and easily accessible online, the Guideline has since become an essential tool widely used in health clinics throughout Australia’s remote communities. Its suite of learning tools – such as visual clinical handbooks, photographs and an interactive questionnaire – were joined in 2019 by a Handbook for Healthy Skin.
For Associate Professor Bowen, the resounding success is a fantastic outcome after spending several years developing the Guideline alongside skin health clinicians and researchers dedicated to reducing the number of children suffering painful and potentially life-threatening skin infections.
“We knew a guideline such as this would need to be user-friendly, filled with images of various skin infections, so it is really pleasing to see it has been so well received and used daily in the communities where it is needed most,” Associate Professor Bowen said.
“In combination with studies currently under way, including the SToP Trial designed to see, treat and prevent skin infections in the Kimberley region – this new knowledge is driving real change around community awareness of skin infections and how important it is to prevent them.”
SToP Trial team members with one of the NHSG posters on display