High-resolution Imaging Probe for Skin Burn Assessment

Proper management of military personnel that have suffered burn injuries is very important for improved treatment outcomes. Essential management aspects of injured military personnel include: efficient triage, initial management and resuscitation in the combat zone, and subsequent evacuation to higher echelons of medical care where increasing medical capabilities are offered. Thus rapid and objective determination of burn severity would result in efficient triage, improvements to care, and decreased length of stay in hospitals. Therefore, the goal of this program is to develop and demonstrate a high resolution optical imaging instrument capable of providing detailed structural and functional information of the burn-injured tissue to help clinicians perform more efficient screening, triage, and therapy of skin burns. The Phase I study at Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed technology for burn injury characterization. In Phase II an advanced, highly engineered, clinical prototype will be developed and preliminarily tested on patients with burn injuries at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Shriners Burn Center, Boston. A Phase III continuation program is planned as well. The goal of the latter will be to further improve the technology, perform a multi-site trial study, and develop and initiate a detailed commercialization plan.