Docobo has introduced a new wound management system that uses mobile phones to track the effectiveness of treatment.
Wound management is being launched as a module of the ComCare Community System.
It was originally developed by Docobo’s partner Silver Chain, the largest home nursing organisation in Australia.
Care staff use a mobile phone to photograph a wound and the picture is transmitted in real-time to a database that holds earlier images of the same wound.
The latest image is then compared to the previous images, so progress can be measured and the efficacy of treatment reviewed.
The system also maintains an up-to-date register of all the consumables used per wound and per person, and benchmarks healing outcomes by client, service location, organisation and national service.
Adrian Flowerday, Docobo’s chief executive, said wound management was putting an increasing strain on health budgets, as well as representing a significant burden to patients.
The cost to the NHS of caring for the 200,000 patients with a chronic wound is conservatively estimated at £2.3 billion – £3.1 billion per year at 2005-6 costs.
That is around 3% of the total estimated out-turn expenditure on health – £89.4 billion – for the same period.
"Wounds need to be managed in the most effective manner possible to ensure the highest quality of care and to contain costs,” Flowerday said.
“Community Care organisations need to promote best practice techniques and materials to achieve increased productivity and efficacy of care.”