AI-powered remote patient monitoring software: 40% faster wound healing

Innowise developed a wound care app as part of the remote patient monitoring software to enhance healthcare delivery and patient management.

Customer

Industry

Healthcare

Region

Client since

2021

Our client is a leading entity in the healthcare domain, specializing in advanced digital care management solutions. Operating predominantly in the medical sector, the company’s services span over 4,000 facilities.

Detailed information about the client cannot be disclosed under the provisions of the NDA.

Challenge

Creating a wound care app with AI-based analytics and wound assessment module

Wound assessment has always been challenging due to manual methods prone to human error. Inaccuracies in measuring wound dimensions, such as depth and color variations, often resulted in extended hospital stays for patients, placing a strain on healthcare resources.

As the need for accurate, remote wound monitoring grew, so did the demand for remote patient monitoring solutions. However, the progression toward healthcare digitization brought about its own set of challenges.

Current remote patient monitoring solutions, while aiming to enable remote monitoring, struggle with fragmented data storage and lack effective communication platforms. This hinders collaboration among doctors, slowing decisions and potentially compromising care. As technology advances, it must address these complexities to truly benefit wound care.

Recognizing these challenges, our client sought to improve the remote patient monitoring system to be implemented in clinics in order to:

Provide non-invasive, precise wound measurements, eliminating subjective estimations.
Implement an AI-driven analysis for accurate wound assessment, ensuring consistent data.
Allow doctors to remotely monitor wounds, reducing hospital stays and facilitating better patient care through collaborative inputs.

Given the complexity and gravity of these challenges, our client leaned on Innowise, expecting a mobile remote patient monitoring software solution to assist doctors in wound care.

Solution

Mobile-based wound care app with AI tools for enhanced patient treatment

Our team created a digital wound care management tool with skin visualization and touchless 3D wound measurement through smartphone-ready software.

This wound care app harnesses the power of AI to gauge the complexity and potential severity of wounds, considering depth, coloration, and other parameters. This allows doctors to determine the most effective treatment strategy. The application functions as a central repository, safeguarding patient data, wound analysis, and medical observations on servers and individual devices.

Our team primarily focused on developing the mobile wound care app for doctors and patients as well as the machine learning implementation, while the client’s team handled the web version of the solution.

Mobile integration of non-invasive wound measurement module

To enhance the wound assessment process for clinicians, we integrated the measurement tool within the iOS- and Android-based wound care app tailored for medical professionals.

When patients visit the clinic, doctors use the mobile device’s camera to document the wound. The app automatically identifies the wound’s contour, gauging its depth, dimensions, and providing detailed statistics on its positive or negative dynamics. This real-time information supports physicians in evaluating the treatment course and making timely adjustments if required.

Additionally, we introduced a version of the app for patients, enabling them to send scheduled photographs of their wounds to doctors remotely, making it easier to monitor the healing process without requiring constant physical appointments.

Furthermore, the wound care app is equipped with thermal imaging capabilities. With the integration of an auxiliary camera connected via Bluetooth, the app can discern skin temperatures, adding an extra layer of information to wound assessment.

Thanks to background synchronization, all the captured wound data is instantly available for review on the web platform, ensuring seamless integration between the mobile wound care app and web interface.

Data input with visual mapping for doctors

Understanding the diversity of wounds and the need for human judgment, we integrated a feature allowing doctors to also manually input data into the system. They can adjust and define colors, shades of the wound, and delineate different affected areas, providing a comprehensive visual mapping. This feature facilitates the inclusion of nuances that automated systems might overlook.

Clinician's notes and recommendations

To foster collaboration among medical professionals, we incorporated a feature where doctors can append notes, classify wound types, and mark their criticality levels. This way, other attending physicians or medical staff can glean insights from previous observations and adjust care accordingly. Additionally, the wound care app facilitates the provision of treatment recommendations, analyzing skin injuries and allowing practitioners to share their expertise and suggested interventions.

User roles and permissions

Acknowledging the hierarchy and diverse responsibilities within a medical establishment, we implemented a two-tiered user role remote patient monitoring system: one at the organizational level and another at the individual level. When an institution creates an account, they can stipulate access levels. While some staff may only view or capture images, others, particularly doctors, can make edits based on their designated role permissions. This system safeguards patient data, ensuring only authorized personnel can make pertinent modifications, thereby upholding the integrity of the patient’s medical record.

Ai-driven analysis with mobile accessibility

On the doctor-side interface, there’s a straightforward option to ‘create a new process’ or to ‘confirm or decline’ a wound diagnosis. Once a wound is logged or confirmed, the analytical module of the remote patient monitoring system works in the background to evaluate the data about the healing progress.

Our team integrated AI-driven progress tracking into the wound care app. This allows for the determination of wound circumference, type, and evolution but also enabled a streamlined, point-of-care experience for clinicians. By utilizing convolutional neural networks and edge computing, we were able to facilitate rapid image recognition and processing.

For patients, this meant quicker feedback on wound conditions, reducing the anxiety of waiting and ensuring timely interventions. For clinicians, it enabled efficient bedside consultations, eliminating the need for transferring data between devices or referencing bulky machinery.

Real-time data synchronization

The wound care app maintains a continuous connection with the the AWS infrastructure, minimizing data redundancy and guaranteeing that all stakeholders have access to the most recent wound data from any authenticated device. Importantly, the AWS infrastructure is HIPAA-compliant, ensuring that patient data is handled with the utmost security and adherence to medical data protection standards.

Technologies & tools

Operating systems

iOS, Android

iOS

Swift Storyboard / XIB / Code programmed UI, UIKit, MVP, StateMachine, CoreData

Android

Kotlin, MVP, Clean Architecture, Multimodules, different Flavors, Single Activity Architecture, Google Services(Auth), Mockito

Machine Learning

TensorFlow Lite, OpenCV

Libraries

SwiftVision, RxSwift, Firebase, SVProgressHUD (iOS); RxJava, Android Camera API, Android Navigation Components, Android WorkManager, Dagger2 (Android)

Databases

Room

Analytics

MixPanel, Pendo, Crashlytics, NewRelic

Web Server

REST API, OkHttp , Retrofit

Cloud

AWS

Process

In collaboration with our client, we embarked on a structured and well-coordinated path to technological evolution. The project unfolded through the following phases:

Discovery phase: Initial exploration allowed us to grasp the challenges and formulate the Vision and Scope document.
UI/UX design: Transforming insights into action, we shaped a user-centric mobile design which manifested in a customer journey map and a clickable application prototype.
MVP development: Before plunging into the full-scale application, we undertook the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This phase allowed us to validate our concept, garner early feedback, and refine our approach based on actual user interactions.
Development: With a clear backlog in view and the feedback collected from the MVP version, developers, alongside the Product team, prioritized and accurately gauged tasks. Our Android team leaned on the Scrum methodology, employing bi-weekly sprints and vital meetings, while the iOS team maintained consistent daily communication.
Quality assurance: Each development stride was met with rigorous testing, ensuring the solution we crafted was both robust and free from glitches.

Deployment and training: After rolling out the finalized remote patient monitoring software solution, a dedicated phase ensured medical professionals were adeptly trained to utilize the mobile solution with ease.

Team

Project Manager

ML Engineer

Back-End Developer

iOS Developers

Android Developers

QA Engineer

Results

33% fewer patients hospitalized after the implementation of remote patient monitoring system

The introduction of our mobile wound care management solution brought about significant changes for both our client and clinics. These transformations were palpable across different levels of care:

Expedited clinical processes. The introduction of the wound care app powered by AI-driven tools means that medical professionals can automatically gauge wound dimensions. This advancement eradicates the inconsistencies and time-lags of manual measurements, resulting in a remarkable 48% reduction in the time required per nurse visit.
Enhanced wound treatment efficiency. Real-time AI analysis bequeathed medical teams with a comprehensive and instantaneous overview of wounds. This newfound proficiency led to an impressive 50% reduction in pressure injury, emphasizing the solution’s precision and proactive care capabilities.
Diminishing hospitalizations. The application’s monitoring and analytics meant that patients were not tethered to prolonged hospital stays solely for wound observation. This pivotal shift led to 33% fewer patients requiring hospitalization, freeing up crucial medical resources and mitigating the logistical burdens on healthcare facilities.
Accelerated healing and recovery. A testament to the wound care app’s efficacy was the 40% acceleration in wound healing rates observed post-implementation. By providing accurate data, facilitating timely interventions, and allowing consistent monitoring, patients experienced quicker recoveries.
Elevated patient experience. Beyond the tangible metrics, the patient-centric approach of the solution meant enhanced experiences. The alleviation from extended hospital confinements not only boosted patient morale but also diminished the operational strain on medical facilities.

After launching our solution, the wound care app demonstrated its success, with dozens of clinics now actively using it in their patient care routines. As we continue to receive feedback from both patients and medical professionals, our developers are currently focused on introducing new features based on the recommendations of the clinic’s clients.

Project duration

January 2023 - Ongoing

33%

fewer patients hospitalized

40%

faster wound healing

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