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Last year 40 per cent of the burn patients admitted to the Bir Hospital Burns Unit in Kathmandu did not survive their injuries.

This contrasts sharply with the remarkable recovery rate of WA burns patients at Royal Perth Hospital.

With limited resources, poor conditions and the absence of a plastic surgeon in the Nepali hospital, even the outlook for patients with less severe burns is bleak.

Too often open cooking fires, exploding stoves and unsafe electrical wiring cause domestic accidents. Without proper treatment, these calamities lead to life-long disfigurement or permanent disability.

The opposite is true for burn injury patients in WA. Here, widely respected burn specialist Winthrop Professor Fiona Wood and her team have made major advances in the clinical care and outcomes of their patients.

Research Assistant Professor Hilary Wallace is part of this group. With an academic background in inflammation and wound healing and an interest in the genetic determinants of excessive scarring, she conducts her basic and clinical studies at the Burn Injury Unit at UWA.

The aims are unambiguous. All efforts are geared towards support for and development of evidence-based innovative clinical solutions, which shape the high quality of burns care we have in WA .

In 2010, an unexpected opportunity came up to do voluntary work in burns education in Nepal. There, Dr Wallace learned about the Bir Hospital Burns Unit in Kathmandu. She discovered a link already existed between the Burns Services at the Bir Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital.

"After years of political instability in Nepal affecting the relationship, it only needed to be rekindled," she said.

Now she calls herself ‘a facilitator of knowledge transfer' in burns care between Perth and Kathmandu. "It is wonderful to share with a unit at the other end of the spectrum."

The options for improvement of burns care at the Bir Hospital are limited. With currently no possibilities for skin graft surgery, treatment is restricted to wound care and infection control. Enhancement of clinical care comes mostly from Dr Dale Edgar, physiotherapist, and Joy Fong, clinical nurse consultant, at the WA Burns Service.

Their essential idea is to encourage body movement during the healing process. This relatively inexpensive approach keeps the affected areas active to reduce the degree of scarring and stiffness. Other feasible objectives of the program are better pain control and palliative care for those with no hope under the deprived conditions at Bir Hospital.

A return to Kathmandu in March this year followed Dr Wallace's earlier visit and allowed a relationship built on trust to develop with local key player, head nurse of the Nepali Burns Unit, Sister Nara Devi Bariya.

This unique one-way traffic of knowledge to help those in need is financially supported by The Rotary Club of Crawley and encouraged by UWA . According to Dr Wallace, it is rewarding to become aware of the difference that even small changes, can make to burns care. "

As a basic scientist, so often you get precluded from being involved in such human activities," she said.

Published in UWA News , 25 July 2011