A new App developed by Healthy.IO has been launched across Greater Manchester to help support the treatment and recovery of wounds.
The wound-measuring technology helps to provide an accurate measurement of a wound in two minutes, to help a digital assessment team over time calculate the progress of a wound and understand if it is improving.
Information from the app will also be available on the Greater Manchester Digital Platform, the shared care record for the region.
The app was initially tested in Rochdale by the community health team, helping to provide accurate measurements of wound and visibility of the healing process, which they estimate to reduce the volume of wound care required by nurses by up to one week per patient.
Sharon Hollister, Assistant Director of Nursing for Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Adult Community Services said: “This is really exciting new technology which promises to standardise both the assessment and treatment of wound care. The system is designed to help us more accurately assess the wound, allowing us to view progression over time and review any problems with the wider team.”
“And in the future using the new Greater Manchester Digital Platform, we will also be able to share progress, photos and treatment plans with other colleagues involved in the patients care so that everyone knows what treatment is recommended and what decisions have been made, instantly.”
Victoria Thorne, Divisional Director of Nursing and Therapies for Heywood Middleton & Rochdale Division of Integrated Care said: “This project promises to be transformational in the way we manage people with wounds across Greater Manchester. The cost to the NHS of chronic wounds equals that of cancer.”
“By cleverly turning a smartphone into a digital wound assessment tool to scan and measure wounds and then transmit this information into the patient record, we could be potentially helping thousands of people across Greater Manchester.”
