New Webinar: Advancing Veteran-Centered Pressure Injury Prevention: Understanding the New VA/DoD Guideline and the Role of SEM Scanning
The New VA/DoD Guideline Puts SEM Assessment on the Map for VHA Facilities
Pressure injuries can start forming beneath the skin up to 10 days before anything shows on the surface. For Veterans, that hidden window is where prevention is most often lost. The September 2026 VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline now recommends sub-epidermal moisture (SEM) assessment, giving VHA facilities a new way to catch damage earlier and act on objective data rather than what the eye can see.
What this webinar will cover
Our November 18 webinar breaks down what the guideline means in practice. Key points include:
- Why risk scores and visual skin checks leave a detection gap
- What the new VA/DoD guideline says about SEM assessment
- How SEM identifies tissue damage before it becomes visible
- How SEM findings can support present-on-admission (POA) documentation and earlier, targeted interventions
- Real-world results, including a 44% drop in hospital-acquired pressure injuries in a VA surgical ICU
- Practical next steps for VHA facilities
Why current assessments leave a gap
The Braden Scale is a valuable tool, but it measures vulnerability. It tells you who might develop a pressure injury, not whether tissue damage is already underway. Visual skin assessment adds another layer of uncertainty because early signs such as redness can be harder to see on darker skin tones. Research by Cynthia Osborne Chambers found that care pathways built on visual and tactile assessment can leave patients with dark skin tones at a disadvantage, while objective SEM assessment detected early-stage damage regardless of skin tone. When damage stays hidden, intervention often comes late. The session opens with the clinical consequences of that delay for Veterans and the teams caring for them.
What the guideline means for your facility
Clinical practice guidelines shape how VHA teams prioritize care, so a guideline that addresses SEM matters. The webinar walks through what the September 2026 guideline says, the science behind SEM scanning, and how it fits alongside the assessments your teams already use.
From admission to action
Admission is one of the most important moments in pressure injury prevention. You’ll hear how SEM can help identify Stage 1 and deep tissue injuries when a Veteran arrives, support accurate POA documentation, and point teams toward the right intervention for the right patient. Real-world results are part of the story too. At VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Dr. Dawn Wang and colleagues added SEM scanning to an interprofessional prevention program in their Surgical ICU and saw hospital-acquired pressure injuries fall by 44%.
Join us on November 18
On Wednesday, November 18 at 1:00 PM ET, Ryan Kraudel, VP of Marketing, and Dan Raffensberger, Sales Managing Director at Bruin Biometrics, will lead this 30-minute session. It’s designed for VHA wound care nurses, nurse educators, clinical leaders, quality and patient safety staff, and anyone involved in pressure injury prevention for Veterans. You’ll leave with practical next steps for exploring SEM-guided prevention at your facility.