The M.Sc. degree program in wound healing is the result of collaboration between University of Providence and the Academy of Wound Healing, the private tutorial service of Dr. Peter Geissler, MD, PhD, MPhil (Cantab), who has been teaching clinical medicine for many years.
Dr. Geissler is Board Certified by the Irish College of Physicists in Medicine (ICPM) and is a registered medical physicist in the State of Colorado. Dr. Geissler holds degrees in physics and biophysics from University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Geissler holds the MD degree from Grace University in Saint Kitts and Nevis, a degree validated by the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK and recognized for licensing purposes by the Malta Further & Higher Education Authority (MFHEA / MQRIC) in Malta. Dr. Geissler holds the MPhil (Cantab) degree in anatomy from University of Cambridge. Dr. Geissler holds an undergraduate degree in engineering from Stanford University and a Master of Engineering degree from University of California, Davis. Dr. Geissler also holds MS and PhD degrees in engineering from University of California, Irvine. Dr. Geissler holds MS, MPhil, and PhD degrees in physiology from Yale University. Dr. Geissler is a podiatric physician in the Europe Union with a specialty in the treatment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and wound care for patients with diabetes. Thus, Dr. Geissler is well-equipped to teach practical aspects of wound healing as well as theoretical aspects of the biology of tissue regeneration.
Academy of Wound Healing is the trade name of Dr. Geissler’s summer tutorial training program in Oxford (UK). For several years, Dr. Geissler has provided individual tuition and small group instruction to healthcare workers in techniques for the treatment of chronic wounds. The premises of Academy of Wound Healing are located at 9 Saint Michael’s Street, Oxford OX1 2RR (UK) on property leased from the University of Oxford.
Dr. Geissler’s Academy of Wound Healing is a continuation of the legacy of Dr. George Cherry who worked for a substantial part of his distinguished career at the Department of Dermatology in Oxford and made significant contributions to the development of wound care internationally.
In 1996, Dr. George Cherry established the Oxford Wound Healing Institute within the Department of Dermatology at Churchill Hospital, Oxford.
Also in 1996, Dr. George Cherry established the Oxford International Wound Healing Foundation which ran the popular Oxford Wound Healing Summer School from 1996 to 2008.
In 1996, Dr. Geissler attended the Oxford Wound Healing Summer School. Dr. Geissler was an ISIS Fellow at Manchester College, Oxford (later renamed Harris Manchester College) where he studied human anatomy and neuroanatomy.
From 1996 to 1997, Dr. Geissler was a postgraduate student in the Department of Anatomy at University of Cambridge and at Wolfson College, Cambridge. Dr. Geissler studied medical microbiology at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in preparation for the following academic appointments: (i) Director of the Cambridge Overseas Medical Training Programme; and (ii) Acting Dean of Kigezi International School of Medicine in Kabale, Uganda. Throughout this period, Dr. Geissler collaborated with Dr. George Cherry and Professor Keith Harding regarding on-going research on the role of inflammatory medicators in wound healing.
In 1999, Dr. George Cherry and Professor Keith Harding, Director of the Wound Healing Research Unit, University Department of Surgery, Cardiff Centre, Health Park, Cardiff (UK) incorporated The Wound Healing Institute in the UK.
In 1999, Dr Kel Cohen and Dr Robert Bob Diegelmann established a comparable institution (Wound Healing Foundation) in USA. The Wound Healing Foundation is a public 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving wound healing worldwide through funding research, education, and outreach. The Foundation was formed by dedicated professionals committed to wound care and to provide patients, researchers, and health professionals the resources to make significant contributions in the critical and under appreciated area of wound healing. (Ref: LINK: https://woundhealingfoundation.org/About.cgi)
On April 6, 2001, Dr. George Cherry incorporated The Oxford International Wound Foundation. The corporate office was located at 7th Floor, Beaufort House 15 St Botolph Street, London, EC3A 7NJ, UK.
In 2002, Dr. George Cherry incorporated the Wound Healing Foundation. The corporate office was located at the Department of Dermatology, Churchill Hospital, Old Road, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LJ, UK.
In 2002, the Wound Healing Foundation published The First Oxford European Wound Healing Course Handbook (2002) published by Positif Press (Ref: ISBN 0 906894301).
In 2008, the annual wound healing summer school was renamed the Oxford European Wound Healing Course. Occasionally, a course handbook was published. For example, The Second Oxford European Wound Healing Course Handbook (2009) was published in 2010 by Positif Press (Ref: ISBN 9780906894514). This book is a collection of presentations made at the 2009 Oxford European Summer School on Wound Healing whose theme was Applying Wound Healing to Clinical Practice. Course faculty came mostly from different parts of Europe.
The Oxford International Wound Foundation was dissolved on 18 August 2015 following the death of Dr. George Cherry.
As a tribute to the pioneering work of Dr. George Cherry and Professor Keith Harding, Dr. Geissler extended the legacy of the Oxford International Wound Foundation by offering individual and small group summer school tuition at 9 Saint Michael’s Street, Oxford OX1 2RR (UK) under the trade name Academy of Wound Healing.
Dr. Geissler consulted Dr. Thomas K. Hunt, MD, FACS, a world-renowned expert on wound healing at University of California, San Francisco, and others on how best to craft the curriculum for the Academy of Wound Healing summer school in Oxford.
Dr. Geissler incorporated into the curriculum important ideas from a number of preeminent scientists including Professor Howard Mel, Professor of Biophysics at University of California, Berkeley (bifurcations, instability in wound healing cascades, nonequilibrium thermodynamics of cell signaling), Professor Lars Onsager, Professor of Chemistry at Yale University (nonequilibrium thermodynamics), Professor Peter Curran, Professor of Physiology at Yale University (coupled cellular transport), Professor Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky, Director of the Weizmann Institute (biopolymers, fibrin clots), Professor Jose Zadunaisky, Professor of Ophthalmology and Physiology at Yale University (bloodless wound healing in the cornea), Professor Michael Message, Professor of Anatomy and Senior Pro-Proctor of University of Cambridge (chaos in the blood clotting cascade, effects of gram-negative bacterial endotoxin on wound healing, sepsis), Professor Paul Flory, Stanford University (polymer statistics), Dr. Vladimir Volloch, Tufts University (heat-shock proteins in infection-mediated inflammation, bradykinin, cellular communication), Professor Gerhard Giebisch, Yale University (endothelium membrane function), Professor Michael Wiederholt, Freie Universität, Berlin (ion transport) and Professor Ilya Prigogine, Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems at the University of Texas at Austin and the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry at Brussels (nonequilibrium thermodynamics and the emergence of dissipative structures such as angiogenesis and self-healing wounds). Despite such a rigorous approach to the biology and biophysics of wound healing, the primary focus of the curriculum for the Academy of Wound Healing is clinical, not scientific.
By far, the most significant intellectual contribution to the field of wound healing was made by Professor Howard Mel, Professor of Biophysics at University of California, Berkeley, who opined that wound healing and cancer are two sides of the same coin.
In 2020, the covid-19 pandemic made it impossible to continue operations of the in-person summer school at Oxford. The pandemic brought about widespread acceptance of online instruction. This acceptance prompted Dr. Geissler to plan to teach advanced clinical methods of wound healing to a broader community of healthcare professionals throughout Europe and USA by offering the course online via synchronous instruction.
Dr. Geissler proposed an affiliation with University of Providence as a means of promoting orderly growth and development of his private tutorial summer school in Oxford into a degree-granting institution of higher education in USA. Towards that end, Dr. Geissler registered the trade name, Academy of Wound Healing, with the Secretary of State in the State of Montana. [Ref: Montana Board of Regents of Higher Education Surety Bond for Postsecondary Educational Institutions, Surety Bond No. 65521378 dated 4, June 221.]
Accordingly, Academy of Wound Healing now complies with all applicable provisions of state law and the rules and policies of the Montana Board of Regents of Higher Education.