Success stories from the Welsh life science industry
Digital wound management: The future of wound care comes to Wales By Katherine Ward, Chief Commercial Officer, Healthy.io The COVID-19 pandemic is front and centre of all current healthcare priorities, and rightly so. Yet, we must not overlook the importance of other key elements of healthcare provision which have by no means abated. Take the management of wounds. It is estimated that 2.2 million people in the UK live with chronic wounds, including about 6 per cent of the population of Wales. These are wounds that take months or even years to heal, costing the NHS around £5 billion a year. The pandemic risks exacerbating the challenge because people with chronic wounds tend to be in an older age bracket or to have diabetes, placing them at a heightened risk for COVID-19 complications. At a time when pressure on the healthcare system is higher than ever, it is critical to ensure that clinicians have access to the tools they need to monitor, manage and heal wounds safely and effectively. Digitising wound management – with digital tools accompanying and informing every step of the care process – is the key to easing the wound care burden. To optimise and expedite the healing process, wounds should be measured regularly and accurately over time, enabling clinicians to track the healing process and make evidence-based decisions. Instead, wounds are typically measured using rudimentary paper rulers, reducing the consistency of measurement and limiting the ability to determine whether a wound is healing and which treatment methods have been most successful.
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Healthy.io’s digital wound management solution harnesses smartphone technology to digitise routine monitoring, allowing clinical staff to accurately measure, document and track wounds using a smartphone. The solution, already in use by NHS wound care professionals and around the world, was recently selected for piloting and evaluation in Wales by a panel coordinated by Digital Health Ecosystem Wales.
After using our app to scan a wound, algorithms measure and analyse it, developing a 3D image which serves as a streamlined visual evidence base for wound tracking. Results are automatically uploaded to a portal, giving patients’ healthcare providers rapid and easy access to the information. Tissue viability teams and district nurses see, manage and treat patients with chronic wounds and pressure ulcers both in and out of hospital. For them the app can be a real asset to their daily work. As staff groups are often based in multiple locations, both in secondary care and in the community, and use different systems to record patient information, our app and portal ensure a single source of data for every patient. Nurses can make remote assessments and ensure that NHS multidisciplinary teams are following the right patient pathway
of care for assessing the wounds, and can safely consult remotely with appropriate experts. Traditional wound care management is time- and resource-intensive for clinicians and often challenging and stressful for patients. Our assessment and documentation process saves time, reduces administrative burdens and helps NHS staff assess patients earlier. Crucially, it also helps to keep patients out of the clinic and at home, which, during the COVID-19 pandemic, is more important than ever.
At a time when concern for the wellbeing of at-risk populations is heightened, we should not overlook the conditions that can impact health and wellbeing most acutely. Instead we must strive to deliver the highest standards of care, to keep as many people as possible as well as possible, for as long as possible. One positive to emerge from the current pandemic is that it has provided a much-needed catalyst for innovation and a renewed mindset of care for people and communities, and this is absolutely something we are excited to be part of.
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