The rise of smartphones has spawned a large number of healthcare applications, from applications that take ECG readings to applications that analyze skin lesions. But few people pay attention to wound care, and wound care is often hidden under the surface of other health problems.
Carlo Perez is a 3D graphics engineer at AMD. After co-founding Swift Medical, he began to pay more attention to wound care. He initially planned to use computer vision to build a wider range of telemedicine applications, but after co-founder and dermatologist Dr. Sheila Wang took him to the wound clinic, he began to realize the full scope of the problem.
A woman struggled with chronic wounds for 11 years. This is a painful condition. The wounds cannot go through the usual repair sequence in time. Another man injured his foot when he stepped on Christmas decorations, but did not realize that due to diabetic neuropathy, this would cause the feet to feel weakened.
“We have evolved from a very broad platform to a place where we can really make a difference,” Perez said in an interview with Zoom. “This is a hidden crisis. Honestly, for those who are not in healthcare, you have never really heard of it.”
Swift Medical has developed an application that can use the camera of a smartphone to create a 3D model of a wound, and automatically measure the circumference, type and process of the wound, which can be used to track whether the wound is healing.
The goal is to allow nurses to better classify and treat these diseases, especially in home care or nursing home settings. For example, patients who may sit or lie still in bed for long periods of time are more likely to develop pressure sores (also called bedsores), which is another chronic wound.
“These are not simple. When you say bedsores…we are referring to fist-sized wounds that may form within a week,” he said. “There are many challenges in the healthcare field, but this is a very huge challenge.”
The Toronto-based company recently raised $35 million led by Virgo Investment Group, and plans to use the funds to build its technology and expand its footprint. Its technology is currently used by home health service provider AccentCare and integrated with EHR provider Homecare Homebase.
Photo credit: Andrei Suslov, Getty Images
