The healthcare industry is continuously being transformed by digital innovations, and a new technological solution will help care providers more accurately measure wounds without any invasive devices.
Swift Medical, a wound care company based in Toronto, has launched its AutoDepth technology, which allows clinicians to take wound depth measurements using a smartphone instead of expensive, invasive medical devices.
The mobile phone application measures the depth of wounds by being waved over an injury in a wand-like fashion. It tracks thousands of points in the images, and generates information needed to discern depth all without ever making physical contact. The app enables sharing of information, collaboration between healthcare providers and patients, and is a cheaper, more effective alternative to expensive equipment, Swift Medical says. According to Swift Medical CEO Carlo Perez, “it is as accurate as 3D camera sensor-based approaches.”
Traditionally, measuring the depth of wounds can be a painful and invasive procedure for patients, and is generally done using a cotton swab physically probing the injury, Swift Medical adds. This increases the risk of contamination or spread of infection, not to mention the high possibility of inaccurate measurement.
“Wounds heal from the inside out, and wound depth measurement is an important indicator in determining if a wound is healing properly,” explains Carlo Perez, CEO of Swift Medical, in a Nov. 6 press release. “We saw the need for a touch-free and painless way to automate wound depth measurement and delivered with AutoDepth. It’s a very important innovation that will ultimately enable better outcomes for all involved in wound care management.”
Mississauga-based health-oriented software developer PointClickCare’s Skin and Wound solution will be the first to integrate AutoDepth. PointClickCare creates and deploys point-of-care in the long-term and post-acute care market.
“Pressure Ulcers are both a serious wellness issue for seniors living in long-term care facilities and one of the fastest growing sources of litigation risk for providers,” Dave Wessinger, chief technology officer at PointClickCare, says. “We believe enhancing our PointClickCare Skin and Wound solution with Swift Medical’s latest innovation to offer an automated, touch-free capability for measuring depth in wounds will be well received by our customers.”
Pricing for AutoDepth is on a customer-by-customer basis and available now in select facilities, and more generally in 2018.