Digital Innovation Initiative Open To All APMA Members!

APMA is committed to helping our members overcome challenges to practice and provide outstanding patient care. To that end, APMA invites you to enlist in SL², a program that uses digital health technology to improve coordination between podiatrists and vascular specialists, with the goal of reducing amputations and saving lives.

Sylvia Virbulis, DPM
President, American Podiatric Medical Association

Your enrollment in SL² entails use of the CarePICS app to support best practices in wound care, including collaboration with your peers in the vascular community. Refer to FAQs below.

CarePICS offers a broad array of capabilities:

Wound image capture paired with simple automated measurement and surface area trending
Improved wound documentation consistent with CMS guidelines
Billable electronic consults with vascular physicians for triage of high-risk patients
Streamlined electronic referrals for ease of communication with other physicians and timely transitions of care
Simplified ordering of wound dressings, CTP and NPWT, including requirements for LCD
Patient-facing mobile app for image sharing, messaging and more (interactions may be reimbursable, depending on payer)
Support for MIPS measure REGCLR8 (chronic wound healing), including registry submission through Registry Clearinghouse

Let us know you’re interested!

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FAQs

What is the SL² digital innovation initiative aim?
How will I benefit from participating in the SL² digital innovation initiative?
As a participant in SL², you will receive:

Use of the CarePICS app 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.
Why is the SL² digital innovation initiative important and relevant?

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.
How will the SL² digital innovation initiative help create new revenue streams for my practice?

CMS and many commercial payers provide reimbursement for electronic (interprofessional) consults, patient shared images and other patient digital communications; also, LCD-compliant advanced wound dressings, CTP and NPWT as well as excisional debridement practices when supported by (and consistent with) documented wound status. Refer to your CPT coding manuals and LCD reference materials for further guidance.
Who is overseeing the SL² digital innovation initiative?
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.
What is my commitment as a participant in the SL² digital innovation initiative?
As a participant in SL², you agree to support best practices in wound care by actively and routinely utilizing CarePICS to:

perform wound image capture, wound measurement and wound documentation;

monitor wound surface area trends; and

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.
If enrolled in the SL² digital innovation initiative, am I required to consult with or refer to certain specialists?

When enrolled in SL², you have complete freedom to remit electronic consult requests and referral orders to any specialists without restriction, and they do not need to be CarePICS users. You are also welcome to contact us for names of vascular physicians in your geographic vicinity, if desired.