BOSS-2 (Birmingham Objective Scar Scale project) is a prospective study to examine the validity of a panel of objective burn…
Improving Scar Assessment
In order to measure the outcomes of any therapy or clinical trial that aims to prevent or reduce scarring consistency is required in the tools used for scar assessment. The current lack of consistency has made the reviewing of outcomes across different clinical trials almost impossible, as stated in a recent systematic review of laser therapy. Unfortunately, no validated objective tools are currently available for scar assessment. This gap was identified as a priority for the Scar Free Foundation at their clinical scoping workshop in 2017. Furthermore, patient reported outcomes (PROs) for scar assessment are either incomplete (not suitable for all age groups), or have very little consideration to the burden of a particular intervention.
In this work package the SFF-CfCWR, working with the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) will conduct a UK wide trial to validate objective scar assessment tools. This work is based on the pilot data generated in the PhD thesis of Kwang Cheer Lee, a SFF Clinical Fellow, which was designed on the basis of a lack of objective scar measurements for scarring and the outcome of the qualitative work of the NIHR-HTA, PEGASUS trial. This research will be funded externally.