Wound healing progress tracking through mobile devices

Project Summary We propose in this SBIR effort to develop a smartphone or tablet based app for caregivers to perform non invasive and quantitative measurements of patientsandapos chronic wounds especially on diabtetic foot ulcers either at care facilities or at patientsandapos home Since chronic wounds take months or even longer to heal it is highly likely that more and more patients will be discharged early from the hospitals To follow up with the wound healing progress outpatients must routinely visit clinicians for a long period of time in order to have their wound healing progress assessed In addition current wound assessment methods mostly provide information with poor accuracy and are invasive The lack of precise wound data makes it difficult for clinicians to track subtle wound changes thus hindering the correct assessment of the treatment effectiveness The proposed software technology will be the first reported to offer precise wound measurement as well as analysis capabilities on mobile platforms It will provide great benefit to chronic wound patients by providing a low cost effective and personalized care solution With its unique framework and many advantages over existing methods the proprietary technology can be easily applied to the benefit of diagnosis and treatment on other type of wounds and diseases such as burns acute wounds battle wounds and tumor irradiation treatment It also has substantial potential for improving access to emergency care in any remote regions With the ability of diagnosis and treatment remotely we expect that our technology will completely change the landscape of the multi billion dollar wound care market There are approximately million patients in the U S suffering from chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers and pressure ulcers and approximately patients hospitalized every year with new wounds The burden of treating chronic wounds is also growing rapidly due to increasing health care costs an aging population and a sharp rise in the incidence of diabetes and obesity worldwide It is claimed that an excess of $ billion is spent annually on the treatment of chronic wounds Undoubtedly the development of a mobile platform based D wound assessment tool is significant and will provide a much needed solution Project Narrative The proposed mobile app to be developed under this SBIR project will provide clinicians a convenient yet comprehensive diagnosis and measurement tool empowering them to provide personalized and timely care for chronic ulcer sufferers such as diabetic foot ulcers With its unique client server framework and many advantages over existing methods the proposed app will have a reasonably large market share in this rapidly growing multi billion dollar industry The proprietary mobile health technology can be used for ambulatory wound care battle wound cares and wound cares for any remote or limited access locations