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Chronic wounds affect more than 6.5 million Americans and incur $25 billion in total cost annually. Yet, there is no gold standard for wound assessment.1 Current standard of care based on visual inspection can confer up to 40% error while existing technologies, such as structured light triangulation and stereophotogrammetry, are prohibitively expensive. Using computer vision algorithms, we developed a mobile wound-assessment tool based on a tablet (iPad, Apple Inc.) with an attached structure sensor, which measures 3D wound dimensions at the point-of-care.3,4,5 The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of a point-of-care device that standardizes wound assessment.
Methods:
To obtain accuracy (mean relative error) and consistency (CV: coefficient of variation) measures, we designed and printed 3D phantoms using Connex rapid prototyping system (Stratasys Inc.) that mimic basic wound geometry. We also obtained commercially available wound models (VATA Inc.) and calculated the wound dimensions using 3D CT-reconstruction with 0.625mm slice (GE Healthcare). Wound measurements were taken using the iPad-based mobile sensor, and the results were compared against the ground-truth dimensions of the 3D phantoms and wound models.
Results:
For wound circumference, the mean relative error & CV on 3D phantoms and wound models were 1.93%&0.72% and 3.0%&0.8%, respectively; for area, they were 4.45%&1.54% and 6.1%&0.8%, respectively; for volume, the numbers were 1.76%&1.76% and 8.2%&9.9%, respectively.
Conclusion:
The tablet-based mobile structure sensor provides an accurate and efficient assessment of wounds. This user-friendly tool allows clinicians to simultaneously capture 3D wound dimensions as well as clinical images for treatment monitoring. Future research is warranted to investigate the device's performance in in-vivo models and its efficacy as part of an integrated wound management system enabling evidence-based care.