A sticker is used to calibrate the image of the wound and the app tracks its size and rate of healing. (Swift Medical Inc)

New smartphone app helps in treating wounds

More and more people in the industrialized world are suffering from wounds that become chronic because populations there are ageing and there is a higher incidence of diabetes and obesity. A new app piloted in Montreal may improve the situation by making it easier to monitor wounds and ensure they are treated so they heal properly.

Wound measurement by the app is much more accurate that that made with a paper ruler. (Swift Medical Inc)

Having a picture helps too, says developer

Normally, wounds should improve about 30 per cent in three weeks. If they do not, treatment is stepped up to prevent them from becoming chronic. Traditionally, health care professionals use a paper ruler to measure wounds but the smartphone application provides a much a more accurate method. A sticker is placed near the wound and used to make sure the image is properly interpreted.

“(The sticker) calibrates for the size of the wound, the colour of the wound and lighting,” says Dr. Sheila Wang, a dermatology resident at the McGill University Health Centre and co-founder of Swiss Medical which developed the app. “That means that if you’re taking a picture of a wound, even if you’re close up or if you’re far away, you always have the accurate size of the wound.

“Once you have that image…the app automatically calculates the surface area…And over time, it tracks how that surface area is changing. You also have the image of the wound…so you can see the type of tissue, the skin around the wound and how the wound is healing.”

(photo: McGill University Health centre)

Dr. Sheila Wang explains why it is so important to prevent wounds from becoming chronic and how the new app helps.

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Pilot project will involve Indigenous patients in remote locations

For now, the app is being used by doctors and nurses, but it is so simple that Wang says it could eventually be used by patients themselves. Images could be transmitted from remote locations that lack of medical resources and studied at larger centres and treatment advice offered remotely. In fact, there will be a pilot project involving Indigenous communities in northern Quebec where there is a high incidence of diabetes and diabetic foot ulcers that could be treated by telemedicine.

‘An epidemic of the developing world’

“It’s a very serious issue…I would say chronic wounds are an epidemic of the developing world,” says Wang. “If a wound is not taken care of it can lead to infection. And if that infection progresses to the bone then you have a bone infection which can lead to an amputation. In other cases, it severely affects people’s quality of life…It’s painful, it can limit activities and it has severe effects.”

Categories: Health, Internet, Science & Technology
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