The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $250,000 grant to a team of University of Houston College of Technology researchers, Luca Pollonini, assistant professor of computer engineering technology and computational health informatics and Jamison V. Kovach, PMI Houston endowed professor in project management. Their collaboration will result in further development of a system for the early detection of pressure injuries and the acceleration of the technology into a marketable product.
Pressure injuries, commonly known as bedsores, are wounds caused by prolonged pressure exerting on the skin of individuals with limited mobility, such as bed-bound patients and wheelchair users. Although a pressure injury initially manifests as an apparently innocuous skin redness, it can rapidly develop into a fully penetrating wound. Approximately 2.5 million pressure injuries are reported yearly, in which patients experience pain and risks of fatal infections. In addition, treatment costs of hospital-generated pressure injuries absorbed by healthcare organizations are estimated $12 billion per year, accompanied by the negative impact on quality ratings.
Pollonini is developing an optical sensing patch called InSPECT (Innovative Skin Patch for Examination and Care Technology) aimed at detecting pressure injuries at the earliest stage possible, when they are still painless and inexpensive to treat. The technology at the core of the exploration is near infrared spectroscopy, which illuminates human tissues with infrared light at 650-1000 nanometers to measure blood perfusion up to several centimeters underneath the skin. Pollonini said, “In this translational research, we intend to use this non-invasive sensing technology to generate actionable information that, upon effective integration into the healthcare facility’s nursing workflow, will prevent or eliminate the progression of pressure injuries.” The goals are to measure and model the effects of prolonged pressure on tissues in a variety of healthy populations and to optimize the design of InSPECT with respect to cost while maintaining its ability to capture significant effects of pressure on tissues. “No one has ever monitored what happens beneath the skin minute to minute,” Pollonini said.
With InSPECT, the patient wears a non-invasive, optical imaging patch that continuously monitors structural and functional tissue alterations caused by external pressure. Using an array of sensors that measure physiological parameters such as tissue optical properties and tissue hemodynamics, it replaces the periodic, subjective visual skin inspection by caregivers with a continuous, objective, quantitative assessment of tissues under pressure, thus providing early detection information that help nurses intervene to prevent progression into a penetrating wound.
Although future plans include transitioning the technology from a laboratory prototype to a commercial product, an important step will be to learn how to communicate meaningful information to healthcare practitioners who can ultimately take action with treatment. Kovach is collaborating with Pollonini to investigate ways to implement effective communication of the early detection of a pressure ulcer to nursing staff without interrupting their workflow. She said that such knowledge could be acquired only by cultivating relationships to understand their information priorities and to learn how actionable patient information should be communicated within the clinical setting. “This project is a perfect merger and application of technology, science, and engineering using quality improvement and design methodologies to develop a process that fits users’ needs,” said Kovach.