Where wound care business moves forward.
Advanced Wound Care Summit 2027
Connect with investors, innovators and industry leaders to explore partnerships, market access and your next stage of growth.
Organized by Kernexus · In association with SmartTRAK
Your next move in wound care
Hear how AWCS brings innovation, investment, and commercial partnerships into the same conversation.
Promotional interviews and perspectives from previous AWCS events.
16–17 February 2027
Austin Marriott Downtown · Austin, Texas
Make your next connection count.
AWCS brings together innovators, investors, strategic companies, distributors and experts in market access. Discuss the decisions that take wound care technologies from an idea to a sustainable business.
Make the right connections
Explore investment and acquisition opportunities, build partnerships, and meet the people who can help your organization grow.
Sharpen your commercial strategy
Discuss market entry, evidence requirements, regulatory pathways and reimbursement with peers and experienced leaders.
Who you’ll meet.
Advanced Wound Care Summit brings together thought leaders from across the wound care ecosystem. This is a focused forum for those influencing investment, commercialization, regulatory navigation and market growth.
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Investors – venture capital firms, private equity groups, and strategic healthcare investors supporting the development and growth of wound care innovations.
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Start-ups – emerging companies developing new technologies, diagnostics, devices, and therapeutics for wound care.
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Global medical technology and advanced wound care companies shaping the established commercial landscape.
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Representatives from health insurers and reimbursement organisations influencing coverage and payment pathways for new technologies.
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Healthcare policy specialists and government advisors shaping the regulatory and reimbursement environment.
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Legal experts specialising in healthcare regulation, intellectual property, reimbursement, and market access.
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Organisations responsible for bringing wound care products and technologies to clinical markets.
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Companies supporting clinical trials, evidence generation, and regulatory approval processes
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Manufacturers producing components, technologies, or devices that power wound care innovation.
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Representatives from regulatory bodies responsible for evaluating and approving new medical technologies.
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Policy advocates working to influence legislation and regulatory frameworks affecting the wound care industry.
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AWCS Growth Award
The AWCS Faculty will award one company a prize package valued at $100,000, designed to accelerate commercialization, market access and business growth.
Eligibility: Participation in the AWCS Growth Award is exclusively available to companies that purchase an exhibition booth and participate in the Innovation Showcase and/or AWCS Shark Tank.
The winner will receive a tailored package of:
Commercial strategy consultancy from:
− Flagstick Advisors worth $10,000
− GCRI worth $10,000
− Northern New England Wound Care worth $10,000
Market access support
Industry promotion and visibility
Pitch deck webinar with Kernexus – worth $25,000
One year’s access to SmartTRAK market intelligence – worth $25,000
Exhibition space and podium time at IPAWS & Tissue Repair Summit 2027 - worth $20,000
Judging Criteria
Participants will be assessed throughout the summit based on:
Assessment of pitch deck
Shark Tank and/or Innovation Showcase presentation
Exhibition booth presence
Market positioning
Product positioning
Team dynamics
Overall engagement during AWCS.
Value-Added Benefits for Early-Stage Companies
Beyond networking, investment and partnership opportunities, AWCS is designed to help emerging companies build visibility and credibility within the wound care community.
Participating companies can benefit from:
Professional Headshots captured on-site for use across marketing materials, investor presentations and corporate communications.
Recorded Pitch Presentations from the Innovation Showcase and AWCS Shark Tank, providing valuable content that can be shared with investors, partners and customers following the event.
Join the AWCS Club
Exclusive Access.
Year-Round Value.
The AWCS Club is an exclusive members’ hub hosted within WoundCafe, providing attendees with privileged access to market intelligence, industry insights and high-value networking opportunities.
Membership is included with an AWCS delegate pass and provides access to a range of exclusive benefits before, during and after the summit.
Membership Benefits
30-day Premium Trial of Below the Knee
Early access to embargoed market intelligence from the AWCS Intelligence Forum
The AWCS Investor Directory, a curated “little black book” of wound care investors and funding sources
Exclusive interviews and discussions with industry leaders, founders and investors
Priority access to selected AWCS content and insights
Access to the AWCS Club Lounge within WoundCafe, designed for networking and business discussions.
From discovery to the patient.
AWCS educates on the entire product journey. Explore the decisions, expertise and connections that move wound care innovation forward.
Discovery
Turn a wound care need into a promising idea.
Preclinical Development
Build the foundation for the next stage of development.
Investment
Explore the capital and partnerships needed to grow.
Clinical Studies
Understand evidence generation and the clinical development journey.
Regulatory Approval
Navigate the requirements that shape your route to market.
Manufacturing & Logistics
Consider how to produce and deliver at scale.
Commercial Adoption
Connect market access, positioning and adoption.
Patient
Bring the product journey back to the people it is designed to serve.
Why AWCS stands in a class of its own
Built around the connections, insight and support that help wound care businesses move forward.
The Incubator
AWCS gives start-ups the skills to bring their invention to life. Learn what it takes to commercialize, build visibility and position your product with guidance from people who have done it.
Ecosystems
Connect with major industry players, multinational and established US companies, and international and regional distributors. AWCS focuses on business interaction and open dialogue.
Networking
Meet the people your business needs to connect with. Focused face-to-face conversations create opportunities to explore partnerships and investment.
Expert-Led Guidance
Explore real-time market information and forecasting from SmartTRAK alongside experienced industry leaders sharing investment and product development knowledge.
The Pathfinder to Success
Understand the choices along your product journey, from regulators and policy changes to trial design, manufacturing and legal requirements.
Coming to America
Explore the changing US wound care market, new technologies and opportunities to diversify, build partnerships and reach early adopters.
The Matchmaker
Connect with wound care investors, explore funding aligned with your vision and gain actionable feedback on your product.
Founder and CEO Meeting
Join industry leaders to discuss, partner and help shape the market. Bring your perspective to conversations about the next stage of wound care growth.
How your two days work.
Bring a clinical perspective to your commercial decisions.
AWCS connects the people shaping the business of wound care. Alongside it, APWCA Tissue Repair Summit Spring explores the evidence, clinical practice and emerging technologies behind tissue repair. Add the clinical perspective to your conversations about growth and adoption.
Explore the evidence and clinical needs behind new technologies.
Understand developments in diagnostics, limb salvage and digital wound care.
Put commercial strategy in a clinical context.
Explore opportunities across both summits.
Connect with the clinical and commercial sides of wound care. Ask the team about opportunities across AWCS and TRSS and the package that suits your organization.
Commercial insight
Morning sessions explore the decisions behind wound care business growth.
Growth & leadership
Start-up journey and success stories
CEO and Founder sessions
Partnerships & distribution
Strategic partnership models
Distributor matchmaking by countries and regions
Evidence & market entry
Clinical trials: phase 1, 2 and 3
How to bring a product to market
US market strategy
Diversification of CAMPs companies
Stability in the US wound care market and forecasting
Focused conversations
Afternoons bring structured networking and focused debate into the day.
Strategic networking sessions via the WoundCafe app
Rotating panel debates with pre-determined agendas
Innovation Showcase: The Future of Wound Care
The Innovation Showcase highlights forward‑thinking technologies and disruptive ideas shaping the future of wound care. This session features innovators working at the intersection of technology, AI, data, and next‑generation care models.
Selected participants deliver 10‑minute presentations showcasing emerging solutions designed to transform assessment, decision‑making, workflow, and outcomes. The focus is on vision, possibility, and what’s next—rather than competition or investment pitches.
Attendees gain early insight into technologies poised to redefine how wound care is delivered, managed, and scaled.
Shark Tank: Wound Care Investment Challenge
A live, investor‑style pitch session spotlighting scalable wound care innovations.
The Shark Tank: Wound Care Investment Challenge brings founders, clinician‑entrepreneurs, and growth‑stage companies together to present investment‑ready ideas to a panel of experienced healthcare investors and industry leaders.
Participants deliver focused pitches highlighting the clinical problem, market opportunity, business model, and path to scale. The Sharks then engage in direct, candid Q&A - testing assumptions around adoption, reimbursement, differentiation, and execution.
Ideas are evaluated on clinical impact, commercial viability, scalability, and team strength. Top presentations are recognized live, showcasing innovations positioned for real‑world adoption and growth.
This session offers:
Curated exposure to high‑quality wound care opportunities
Real‑time insight into investor decision‑making
Direct, actionable feedback for founders preparing to scale
Think your innovation is ready for investor‑level scrutiny? Apply to pitch—or attend to see which ideas stand out.
“AWCS is unique opportunity to bring all major players together in one room, helping U.S. businesses grow in a post-reimbursement challenge scenario.”
— Bent Von Eitzen
Global Clinical Research Institute
Build your connections in the US wound care market.
Powered by GCRI
Navigate market change
Explore the US wound care market as it changes following shifts in the CAMPs market.
Build new partnerships
Discuss how companies can diversify, stay visible and create new partnerships.
Discover global innovation
AWCS showcases new technologies from around the world and opportunities for early adopters.
