In small-town Vermont, the local hospital is the whole healthcare system for miles, and the doctor on call has to manage whatever walks through the door — teenagers mauled by family pets, farmers cut up by machinery, diabetic ulcers that haven’t progressed in months. General surgeon Dr. Sarah Waterman joins host Brad Wiggins to walk through her use of Imbed Biosciences’ Synthetic Antimicrobial Matrix (SAM) products — Microlyte®, Surgaflex™, and Pelashield™, as well as SAM with PainGuard™ that incorporates lidocaine HCl to help manage pain — across trauma, post-surgical, and chronic wound care. Through cases involving a teenager’s dog bite with an exposed bicep tendon, an angle grinder injury packed with denim and metal grit, and chronic wounds stalled for hundreds of days, Dr. Waterman describes how SAM™ products have helped her reduce reliance on skin grafts, suppressive antibiotics, and opioids. Hear what the first-in-human Microlyte® trial taught her about bioburden and epithelial creep, why she now reaches for Surgaflex™ around hernia mesh and bowel anastomoses, and how lidocaine in PainGuard™ has made dressing changes tolerable on highly sensitive sites like the ear. GUESTS Sarah Waterman, MD Dr. Sarah Waterman is a general surgeon at Copley Hospital in Vermont, where her practice spans breast cancer, trauma, and wound care for a community that often can’t travel for advanced treatment. Before medicine, she worked in emergency planning and disaster management — including a post-Katrina deployment in North Carolina — before training in a general surgery program at Mission Hospital in Asheville, where she helped run the first-in-human clinical trial of Microlyte® as a resident. About Brad Wiggins, BSN, RN, CBRN Brad Wiggins, BSN, RN, CBRN served patients for over three decades as a burn unit nurse before transitioning to clinical education. Today, as Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Imbed Biosciences, he’s dedicated to advancing standards of care to help burn and wound care clinicians achieve better outcomes for patients. Connect with Brad Wiggins on LinkedIn About Zero Zone Zero Zone brings together the people at the forefront of burn and wound care for conversations about the future of tissue regeneration and SAM™ (Synthetic Antimicrobial Technology). With Brad Wiggins, longtime burn unit nurse turned clinical educator, surgeons, trauma specialists, and wound care teams share how they’re reducing complications and improving patient outcomes. Hear discussion and analyses of real cases where SAM™ Technology made the difference—what worked, what didn’t, and how protocols are evolving to reduce opioids, get patients moving sooner, and how the burn care community is on a collective mission to achieve zero complications – together. Learn more about Imbed Biosciences Follow Imbed on Instagram @imbedbio and on LinkedIn Zero Zone is a production of The Axis: theaxis.io
