technology
Healing hardware
New materials and devices continue to take wound care well beyond old-fashioned bandages.
Kathy Finlayson interviewed by Dallas Bastian
It may seem unlikely that drones, droids and robots would have much to do with wound care, but they were the theme of this year’ s recent National Science Week, which Wounds Australia( Queensland) has embraced as the basis for an upcoming education seminar.
The event explored the ways in which technology is used in and enhances wound management. Dr Kathy Finlayson, president of the Queensland branch of Wounds Australia, says technology has been racing ahead over the last decade and influencing all areas of healthcare, including wound management.
“ One of the biggest challenges for all healthcare professionals is keeping up to date with the pace of change, which is one of the reasons we have embraced Science Week as a time to hold our annual day seminar,” Finlayson says.
Aged Care Insite sat down with Finlayson in the lead up to her association’ s seminar to discuss the technologies the event would delve into and whether wound management will experience more technological interruption in the coming years.
ACI: What impact is technology likely to have on wound care over the next five or so years? Will we see more technological innovation capable of improving care and patient outcomes? KF: Yes. I can see some exciting things happening. The area is progressing quickly, particularly in sensor technology. Also in the area of advanced and biological wound dressings. Some of those advanced dressings are able to manage wound exudate and keep the whole wound bed area in an ideal healing environment, without the frequent changes we used to have to rely on.
We are now getting minute sensors that are able to sense pressure, temperature, PH changes, all sorts of things … They will be able to be embedded in wound dressings shortly, so we can have early warning signs of infection before we can see any clinical signs. The sensors for pressure, for example, are being incorporated in new materials and that will be useful for people in a variety of situations. These sensors can pick up abnormally high levels of pressure so we know we need to intervene. There’ s also larger equipment with sensors that are able to redistribute pressure, so we can prevent pressure injuries for all sorts of people. Not just in the bed, but also for people in wheelchairs, or looking at diabetic foot appliances, etc., under the feet.
That’ s when we’ re looking at treatments, but technology is also involved in our health management and documentation systems. There are a number of apps being released that will help us detect people at high risk of not healing at a much earlier stage. The systems that are being developed for documentation, once we get used to them all, are going to help us move ahead. We’ ll be able to document a lot more comprehensively; we’ ll be able to pick up problems much earlier. I think it will help with benchmarking both nationally and internationally.
Also, many of these systems and apps enable patients to take control of their own treatment and facilitate their own selfmanagement, because they’ ll be able to use them at home, and keep in touch with health professionals from a distance.
The event is embracing the theme of National Science Week 2016 – Drones, Droids, and Robots – and will look at the use of technology in wound management. Why is this an important area to explore at the moment? We all know that technology has been racing ahead over the last decade, faster than many of us can keep up. It’ s influencing all areas of healthcare; it’ s influencing healthcare systems and many areas that previously were difficult to treat. It’ s certainly influencing wound management. One of the biggest challenges for all healthcare professionals is keeping up to date with the pace of change, which is one of the reasons we have, for a few years now, embraced National Science Week, as a time to hold our annual day seminar.
[ Events like this ] provide the opportunity to hear about use of new technologies and have a range of hands-on workshops.
What are some of the technological developments the event will delve into? We have a big range. I’ m excited about the day. We’ re going to be discussing new technologies involved with limb replacement from our prime guest speakers, and also we’ re going to provide a demonstration of tele-medicine methods. We’ ll also be providing case studies where we’ re looking at new advances in dressing types.
On the science side, we have a case study looking at new developments in biochemistry and cellular biology, and trying to see why some wounds heal and others don’ t. We’ re going to be looking at new technology to prevent pressure injuries, and also hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We have a guest speaker from the Wesley Centre of Hyperbaric Medicine who’ ll be talking about use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in wound care.
We’ ll be having hands-on workshops and will be looking at a whole range of new laser cameras and imaging techniques, including software programs for measuring wounds, that can give us a much more accurate measurement of wounds when we’ re doing assessments. We’ re also going to be looking at new technologies in diabetic foot assessment and burns management.
We’ re trying to cover a pretty broad scope of areas.
What do you hope health professionals take away from these kinds of education seminars? We hope everyone takes away a piece of new knowledge about one or more technologies that they hadn’ t heard about in wound care, and also that they all involve themselves in the workshops and are able to try some out some things. That gives them the knowledge to work out which equipment or techniques might be useful in their own practice and for their own patients. ■
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