3M today announced that 3M Foam Adhesive Dressing - Heel Design has received a Silver 2005 Medical Design Excellence Award for design innovation. Available now as 3M Foam Adhesive Dressing, the dressing will soon be part of 3M's established and trusted Tegaderm brand line. The dressing is unique in providing an easy-to-use solution for the significant problem of pressure ulcers on the heel and other highly contoured body sites that are difficult to dress. The Medical Design Excellence Awards competition is the only awards program that exclusively recognizes contributions and advances in the design of medical products.

"We are proud to be recognized as a Silver winner of this year's Medical Design Excellence Awards for our work in developing this groundbreaking product," said Brett Baynton, skin health marketing manager, 3M Medical Division. "The occurrence of heel pressure ulcers is growing more common and they are difficult to dress because of the body's contours. The innovative design of 3M Foam Adhesive Dressing - Heel Design exemplifies what we strive for at 3M: cost-effective, time-saving product solutions for health care providers that help improve outcomes for patients."

Innovative Design Offers Multiple Benefits to Care Givers, Patients

The 3M Foam Adhesive Dressing - Heel Design is a highly absorbent, breathable wound dressing. It is constructed from a conformable polyurethane foam pad, an additional absorbent nonwoven layer and a top layer of transparent adhesive film. This film is moisture vapor permeable, which helps to prevent wound exudate strike-through and acts as a barrier to outside contamination. The dressing maintains a moist wound environment, which has been shown to enhance wound healing. It is designed to allow easy, one-handed application to difficult body contours, including heels and elbows.

Previously, applying a dressing to a heel wound often involved a more time-consuming, costly and less effective process that included cutting the dressing to make it conform over the heel and patching the cut segments with tape to better secure the dressing. The 3M Foam Adhesive Dressing - Heel Design helps provide fast and easy application with no cutting, darting or patching required.

3M Foam Adhesive Dressings are indicated for use as primary dressings for moderately to highly exuding, partial and full-thickness dermal wounds, including pressure ulcers, venous leg ulcers, abrasions, first- and second-degree burns, donor sites, arterial ulcers, skin tears, and neuropathic ulcers. The dressings are used to treat wounds in hospitals, long-term care facilities, wound clinics and in home care.

3M Foam Adhesive dressings will soon join the Tegaderm family of dressings under the name Tegaderm Foam Adhesive Dressings. 3M is a world leader in films, adhesives and polymer technologies, and its Tegaderm transparent film dressing line has been the most trusted brand of dressings for 20 years.

About the Medical Design Excellence Awards

The Medical Design Excellence Awards competition is organized and presented by Canon Communications LLC. Entries are evaluated on the basis of their design and engineering features, including innovative use of materials, user-related functions that improve health care delivery and change traditional medical attitudes or practices, features that provide enhanced benefits to the patient, and the ability of the product development team to overcome design and engineering challenges so that the product meets its clinical objectives.

A comprehensive review of the entries was performed by an impartial, multidisciplinary panel of third-party jurors with expertise in biomedical engineering, human factors, industrial design, medicine and diagnostics.

About 3M Health Care

3M Health Care, the largest of seven major 3M business segments, is dedicated to improving the practice, delivery and outcome of patient care. 3M Health Care is a leading provider of solutions for medical, dental, pharmaceutical, health information systems and personal care markets. Key brands from the 3M Medical Division include: Tegaderm, Steri-Strip, Littmann, Micropore, Attest, and Ioban.

About 3M - A Global, Diversified Technology Company

Every day, 3M people find new ways to make amazing things happen. Wherever they are, whatever they do, the company's customers know they can rely on 3M to help make their lives better. 3M's brands include Scotch, Post-it, Scotchgard, Thinsulate, Scotch-Brite, Filtrete, Command and Vikuiti. Serving customers in more than 200 countries around the world, the company's 67,000 people use their expertise, technologies and global strength to lead in major markets including consumer and office; display and graphics; electronics and telecommunications; safety, security and protection services; health care; industrial and transportation. For more information, including the latest product and technology news, visit www.3M.com.

3M, Tegaderm, Steri-Strip, Littmann, Micropore, Attest, and Ioban, Scotch, Post-it, Scotchgard, Thinsulate, Scotch-Brite, Filtrete, Command and Vikuiti are trademarks of 3M.

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