‘Significant leap forward’ in wound detection, say researchers

A world-first clinical study has shown a thermal-imaging tool could enable home-care nurses to identify hard-to-heal wounds weeks earlier than currently possible.

In research conducted by RMIT University and the Bolton Clarke Research Institute, an artificial intelligence system was able to predict how a wound would heal based on the thermal images obtained from a first assessment of a person’s leg ulcers.

“This means that specialised treatment for slow-healing leg ulcers can begin up to four weeks earlier than the current gold standard,” said lead researcher Professor Dinesh Kumar, from RMIT’s School of Engineering.

The current gold-standard approach requires taking tracings of the wound size after four weeks, which delays identification of slow-healing sores.

A research project to trial a fast, non-invasive test for leg ulcers was first established in 2020. The latest findings published in the Nature journal Scientific Report build on the collaborative work published last year that enabled the identification of chronic leg sores by the second week after the initial assessment. These latest results allow the identification of these wounds a week earlier and represents a significant leap forward, say the research team.

“It is effective for nurses to use during visits to people’s homes.”

Co-researcher RMIT’s Dr Quoc Cuong Ngo said, while thermal imaging had previously been considered for detecting chronic wounds, the team’s methods enabled significantly earlier detection than other approaches previously researched. “Our innovation is not sensitive to changes in ambient temperature and light, so it is effective for nurses to use during their regular visits to people’s homes.”

There are other benefits to adopting this new method. Bolton Clarke Research Institute senior research fellow Dr Rajna Ogrin said – unlike the current approach which involves physical contact with the wound – the contactless method reduces infection risk.

“Clinical care is provided in many different locations, including specialist clinics, general practices and in people’s homes,” she said. “This method provides a quick, objective, non-invasive way to determine the wound-healing potential of chronic leg wounds that can be used by healthcare providers, irrespective of the setting.”

She added: “This means specialised treatments, including advanced wound-cleaning techniques and therapies, can be implemented immediately for problematic leg wounds.”

How it works

This new method provides information on spatial heat distribution in a wound and predicts, with almost 80 per cent accuracy, whether leg ulcers would heal in 12 weeks without specialised treatment.

Funded by the Medical Research Future Fund, the study was based on thermal images collected from 56 clients with venous leg ulcers. VLUs are caused by poor vein function and are a major source of pain and disability in Australia, affecting about 1 per cent of the population – including aged care recipients. They often have poor healing rates.

Next steps

Now that the method has been successfully demonstrated in controlled trials with partner clinicians, the next step is to adapt it so that a nurse will have this thermal imaging and rapid assessment capability on their mobile phones.

“We are keen to work with prospective partners with different expertise to help us achieve this goal within the next few years,” said Professor Kumar.

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