When different clinicians are responsible for caring for the same patient’s wounds, how do you ensure consistency? Across the healthcare continuum, inconsistency is one of the most talked-about wound care challenges. In addition to variability in the patient environment, when clinicians use a paper ruler the inaccuracy in assessment can be as high as 45%! And even for those utilizing wound images (and you should!), there are pixelation challenges and no standards for lighting or distance when taking photos. Why is this significant? With their clear visual representation of a wound, images can add exceptional value to a patient’s data and charts, but only when photos capture changes in the wound itself, not changes in the surrounding environment.
Inconsistencies are prevalent for a number of reasons. Different care providers have different ways of doing things and varying levels of experience with wounds. Clinicians may receive fewer than 10 hours of wound care-specific training in school, and once in the workplace, organizations differ in their practices, methods and tools for wound care management. These factors make it exceptionally hard to achieve consistency in wound care.
It’s time to take the uncertainty and guesswork out of wound care, and administer care based on data you can trust.
To understand how a wound is healing, reliable measurements are essential. These measurements drive evidence-based, high-quality care. Without technology, two clinicians may assess a wound very differently. Because wounds aren’t uniformly shaped, measuring length and width dimensions accurately can be challenging. These inaccurate measurements make it hard to capture and record changes, and any variability between clinicians can provide skewed results on progress: the data may show progression or regression where none exists.
As measurements are the basis for care, changing dimensions can negatively impact a patient’s treatment plan and the quality of care they receive. They can also lead to adverse outcomes and increased costs.
Our Solution
There’s a new standard for wound care and the ability to leverage technology, and it has given clinicians and organizations the resources to overcome many of the aforementioned challenges. Swift Skin and Wound offers advanced, AI-powered visioning capabilities to automatically capture and calculate length, width, depth, and surface area, all with exceptional accuracy.
A core component of our solution is the HealX, an FDA-registered, scientific calibrant that allows for optimal wound photography. The HealX guides the user to properly position their mobile device, while also calibrating and adjusting the image for accurate size, color and lighting. With the HealX there to help, there’s no longer any need to worry about body position or camera settings. It plays an essential role in the automatic calculation of clinically-validated measurements and color trends.
It’s time to put the paper ruler down and consider an app that’s proven to offer 95+% consistency between wound measurements and the same level of measurement accuracy. It’s time to get results you can trust.
You’re going to want to see it for yourself. Book a demo or take a minute to see how it works.
Other articles you might find interesting:
What is an Adhesive Scientific Calibrant?
How a Small, Scientific Calibrant Can Drastically Enhance Wound Care
