Development of device to enable the assessment of burn severity by artificial intelligence in the militaryÆs echelon III care environment

Burns are a common and severe combat injury that require highly trained clinicians to diagnose and treat, especially for those severe burns that need an immediate excision. However, lack of burn experts in the far-forward military hospital and the challenge of accurate burn assessment presents a high risk for unnecessary transport of casualties. Thus, there is a critical need for a device to aid rapid and accurate burn assessment in a military far-forward burn care setting. To meet the critical need, Spectral MD is developing a multispectral imaging (MSI) device for accurate image-guided burn assessment. Through the work of DHA Phase I and initial Phase II, Spectral MD developed a medical cart-based Lens Cluster MSI device and verified its performance for a guided burn excision surgery in a pre-clinical animal model. Meanwhile, Spectral MD was also performing a multi-center clinical study sponsored by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, toward the development of the Lens Cluster MSI device for automated burn severity assessment. This second Phase II provides Spectral MD an opportunity to upgrade the current cart-based Lens Cluster design while maintaining its performance. Spectral MD proposes to upgrade the current system design to a fully handheld single-aperture design through replacement of the existing 4-camera Lens Cluster MSI sensor to a single-camera MSI sensor for deployment of the burn assessment algorithm in a far-forward military care setting. Through this upgrade, the system will be miniaturized into a camera and tablet configuration. Spectral MD proposes this work in three stages. Stage 1 involves development of a bench-top system with optical and illumination subsystems. In Stage 2, the bench-top system will be integrated into a fully handheld prototype with engineering design refinements. Verification plans will be generated, executed, and documented. Design outputs will be updated iteratively based on verification tests. In Stage 3 Spectral MD will work with the Burn Center at University Medical Center New Orleans to validate the system prototype in clinical study. As the overall goal, Spectral MD expects to successfully develop a well-defined and fully handheld MSI system to deliver a portable MSI sensor capable of implementing Spectral MDÆs artificial intelligence algorithm for burn assessment in a far-forward military care setting.