This edition of CLEARcast, featuring Professor David G. Armstrong of

Scholl's CLEAR at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and

Science, discusses a question posed to Dr. Armstrong by Dr. John

Steinberg of Georgetown University during a recent symposium. The

question of surrogate markers for success fostering further innovation

in wound healing and compressing the cycle for innovation is discussed

in this edition. The drug Lipitor needed a cholesterol test to show

its value-- as a trial for its prevention of sudden cardiac death

would be too long and costly for initial study and would introduce too

many confounding factors.  At present, our equivalent of sudden

cardiac death is "wound healing". In this profession's maturation, we

must realize that before we have a "blockbuster" wound healing device,

we need more narrow accepted definitions of success.