Digital Innovation Initiative
Now Open To All APMA Members!

The aim of SL² is to reduce preventable limb loss through best practices in wound care and timely access to vascular care.

As a participant in SL², you will receive:

• Use of the CarePICS app at NO COST through June 30, 2024 and thereafter at a discount of 20% off the standard subscription fee. Key features include:
  
  • wound image capture via any smartphone or tablet with a camera
  • automated wound measurement with >95% accuracy
  • automated surface area trending
  • standardized documentation consistent with CMS requirements
  • electronic consults with vascular or other physicians
  • electronic referrals to vascular or other physicians
  • patient self-reporting and telehealth
  • support for MIPS measure REGCLR6
• Registry submission for MIPS measure REGCLR6 at NO COST through December 31, 2024 (via Registry Clearinghouse, a qualified clinical data registry vendor).
• Educational guidance on best practices in wound care, with a focus on how to identify cases that may require vascular intervention and how to mitigate malpractice risks.
• Pre-packaged content for promoting SL² on your website, through your social media accounts and at your physical office locations.
• [With your express authorization] Recognition as an SL² participant in various announcements and other media.

Evidence has shown that inadequate and contradictory documentation, variability in wound care practices, failure to perform or order appropriate diagnostics studies, and lack of timely referrals to specialists are significant contributors to preventable limb loss and medical malpractice.

A program that utilizes digital health technology to facilitate performance improvement in all of these areas has the potential to make a demonstrable difference in the outcomes, lives and livelihoods of wound care patients and the providers who serve them. This is especially important now that the effects of pandemic-related delays in care are being fully realized, and the healthcare community is seeing a surge in patients with untreated and unmanaged non-healing wounds and acute-on-chronic complications.

Additionally, a program known as Project CORE (Coordinating Optimal Referral Experiences) — based on a model initially developed at the University of California, San Francisco and sponsored by CMS — demonstrated that interprofessional consults are the preferred method of determining whether referrals to a specialist are necessary. In its first three years, Project CORE participants experienced an 84% increase in timely access to specialty care.

CMS and many commercial payers now provide reimbursement for electronic (interprofessional) consults, patient shared images, patient video visits and other patient digital communications. Refer to your CPT coding manuals for further guidance.

SL² is governed by an advisory panel of physicians with expertise in podiatric and vascular medicine (in alphabetical order):

• David B. Alper, DPM
  

  Member of Board of Trustees, American Podiatric Medical Association

  Board Member, American Diabetes Association – Northeast Region

• Vinod A. Chainani, MD, FACC, FSCAI
  

  Interventional Cardiologist and Endovascular Specialist, Palm Vascular Centers

• Paramjit “Romi” Chopra, MD
  

  Founder, Chairman and CEO, MIMIT Health

• Vickie R. Driver, DPM, MS, FACFAS, FAAWC
  

  Chair, Wound Care Collaborative Community

  Professor of Medical Education, University of Virginia School of Medicine

• Matthew G. Garoufalis, DPM, FASPS, FACPM, CWSD, FFPM, RCPS(Glasg), FRSM
  

  President, Professional Foot Care Specialists, PC

  Co-Chair, Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders

  Past President, American Podiatric Medical Association

• Alton R. Johnson, Jr., DPM, DABPM, FACPM, FASPS, CWSP
  

  Attending Physician, Clinical Assistant Professor and RISE Innovation Fellow, University of Michigan

  Chair of Board of Directors, American Society of Podiatric Surgeons

• M. Laiq Raja, MD, FACC, FSCAI
  

  Director and Co-Founder, Pulse Amputation Prevention Centers

  Interventional Cardiologist and Limb Salvage Specialist, El Paso Cardiology Associates, P.A.

  Medical Director of Cardiology and Critical Limb Ischemia Program, The Hospitals of Providence Memorial Campus

The SL² advisory panel is directed by Christopher K. Bromley, DPM, FACFAS, Chief Medical Officer of CarePICS and Adjunct Professor at Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine.

As a participant in SL², you agree to support best practices in wound care by actively and routinely utilizing CarePICS to:

1. perform wound image capture, wound measurement and wound documentation;
2. monitor wound surface area trends; and
3. conduct electronic consults with vascular specialists when indicated, followed by electronic referrals when requested.

You also agree to engage in educational sessions on best practices in wound care, with a focus on how to identify cases that may require vascular intervention and how to mitigate malpractice risks.

When enrolled in SL², you have complete freedom to remit electronic consult requests and referral orders to any specialists without restriction. You are also welcome to contact us for names of vascular physicians in your geographic vicinity, if desired.