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As concerns about aged patients contracting COVID-19 increased, care delivery began a gradual shift toward a home setting. As a result, participants in the wound care industry are investing heavily in technologies and solutions that require minimal/no medical intervention and can be used patients/family/care providers. Following the pandemic, the focus of the advanced wound care solution industry shifted from wound treatment and healing to early wound detection and prevention. The increasing rate of healthcare-acquired pressure injuries (HAPI) was one of the primary drivers of this change, as this non-reimbursable treatment creates a huge cost burden for hospitals. The lack of adequate hospital beds during the COVID-19 pandemic also reinforced the shift toward prevention of chronic wounds, such as pressure ulcers (PrU) or diabetic foot ulcers (DFU).

The global wound care solutions space has been segmented into basic, surgical and advanced wound care solutions. Basic wound care solutions are set to dominate the market throughout the forecast period (2021–2026) with either a stable or a slightly declining growth rate. Surgical wound care solutions which witness a decline due to the pandemic-induced hold on elective surgeries is likely to see growth by late 2021 when postponed surgeries are completed; however, demand will decline due to the preference for minimally invasive surgeries by both patients and clinicians. Advanced wound care solutions will be the fastest growing segment with the uptake of new-age, AI-based solutions, such as 3D-bioprinted scaffolds, sensor-embedded early detection scanners, autologous wound patch, and so on. Government support for wound prevention and early detection is paving the way for more innovation in sensor-embedded and AI-enabled technologies and for a clinical support database that will help clinicians quickly decide treatment pathways. Research trials on chitosan as an effective bio-foam that enables faster wound healing indicate a huge future growth potential. Though a saturated market, North America will continue to lead the wound care industry, while Europe remains stable. APAC, on the other hand, will see the highest growth rate, while Rest-of-world (RoW) grows with the uptake of technologically advanced wound care solutions in the Middle East, Latin America, and South Africa.