Interview: Technology improves wound care management Special

Swift Medical specializes in wound care management technology. This month the company has launches a new platform called Swift AutoDepth technology. The technology enables clinicians to take wound depth measurements at the point of care using a regular smartphone camera instead of expensive medical devices. Taking such measurements is of clinical importance, since wounds heal from the inside out, and wound depth measurement is an important indicator in determining if a wound is healing properly. To discover more about Swift AutoDepth’s contact-free and painless method for clinicians to automatically document wound depth, Digital Journal caught up with Swift Medical CEO, Carlo Perez. Digital Journal: How is the medical technology landscape changing? Carlo Perez: Most noticeably, mobile smartphone technology continues to help digitize and transform medicine. For instance, Swift Skin and Wound allows doctors and nurses to make immediate, more informed decisions, reduce errors, and eliminate paperwork. But equally powerful forces like Telemedicine, AI, Big Data and the continued digitization of information indicate far more change to come. DJ: What would you say to medics (healthcare providers) who are less convinced about new technologies? Perez: Obviously, those who choose careers in healthcare are eager for their patients to have the best outcomes possible and appreciate technology that help do that. If they are skeptical about new technologies it is likely because they’ve been forced to adopt technologies that were difficult to learn, awkward to use or unreliable. So for us, that means we’ve only got one chance to win them over. I think it also explains our success. For clinicians, using our smartphone app really is as easy as taking a picture. DJ: What services and products does Swift Medical technology provide? Perez: Our flagship product is Swift Skin and Wound. It includes a smartphone app that is used by clinicians to capture wound care information as easily as taking a picture. It provides immediate wound analysis using our proprietary machine vision algorithms. Beyond the app, our web-based dashboard allows for real-time collaboration and reporting. To users it seems simple but behind Swift is the world’s most advanced point-of-care wound care visualization, measurement and analysis technology. This, as well as our end-to-end integration with their systems is the reason industry giants like Point Click Care and Healogics choose to work with us.

Swift Medical, the world leader in wound care management technology, announced that its technology will power the new digital image acquisition application of Healogics, the largest provider of advanced chronic wound services in the U.S.

Swift Medical

DJ: With your recent partnership with Healogics Photo Measurement, how will this assist medics? Perez: Presently clinicians at Healogics use traditional ruler-based methods to measure wound length, width and surface area. Healogics Photo Measurement now enables physicians to provide the consistent, accurate wound size and data collection vital to the practice of quality wound care today. Our solution also leverages data from Healogics electronic medical record, i-heal 2.0®, to allow for richer, real-time collaboration and more meaningful wound care reporting. Most importantly, Healogics patients can take comfort in knowing that they are receiving state-of- the- art wound care. DJ: In which format are the images captured? Perez: Images are captured at the highest resolution of the device on which the app is installed. DJ: How was the system tested to assess its reliability? Perez: There are too many methods, spanning months of engineering and medical assessments to mention. In terms of accuracy and reliability of measurement, We test with novice users who have no wound care training. They measure the length, width and area of plastic model wounds using the Swift app. High accuracies and high inter-rater reliabilities were obtained using the Swift Wound app. Using the traditional ruler method also yielded reliable wound measurements, albeit lower than that of the Swift Wound app. DJ: Are there any data security concerns? Perez: Security is of tantamount concern. Our solution is engineered to protect patient data and conform to, or exceed, client and federal patient data requirements. DJ: What other projects are you working on? Perez: We’re really excited about a new feature called Swift AutoDepth. It is a first in smartphone apps, allowing doctors and nurses to move their smartphone over the wound and measure wound depth with just a phone. For patients that means the wound no longer has to be measured with a cotton swab and ruler. They have less discomfort while their doctors get more consistent, reliable results.