Exploring the Potential of AI in Lower Extremity Wounds

Windy Cole, DPM:

Hi, I am Dr. Windy Cole. I am the Director of Wound Care Research for Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine. I'm also the Global Medical Affairs Director for Natrox Wound Care.

The endless possibilities with AI and healthcare and wound care. We did get a snippet of it yesterday at SAWC in the opening remarks, which I think was pretty incredible. Where I see it entering into the field currently and where I think there's probably a lot of utility here within the near future is with monitoring wounds and determining wound etiology, if a wound has stalled, if there's signs and symptoms of bacterial infection, things that we can't pick up with our naked eye these AI technologies can, and they could really pixelate photos down to very granular level and detect things sooner, so it could help us determine when our treatments are effective or when they're not, and we might have to modify our treatment plan.

Well I think again, numerous possibilities. If first and foremost we're not making the correct diagnosis of a wound etiology we're going to unfortunately not be able to treat that wound effectively. So I think it can be a tool, especially for new practitioners entering into wound care, just as kind of a double check right? There are systems in place now in EMRs where a clinician puts in a wound etiology and then maybe a red flag comes up that says are you sure this is a diabetic foot ulcer? It's on the ankle above the malleoli, possibly let's revisit. Is it a different etiology of venous leg ulcer, or maybe an atypical wound type? And it gives a clinician a pause so they can review and determine if that etiology is correct. So I think that's huge because we know that there are standards of care based on wound etiologies so that we'll be more successful.

Also, being able to determine when a patient's wound is not on a healing trajectory. Again, it's kind of a double take or a red flag. Hey, this wound measurement, that area, has been the same for the past three weeks, possibly we need to deviate in the type of treatment that we're applying. And sometimes we do get blinded. We're kind of just seeing our patients going through our daily routines, and then we might not really identify that as soon in the patient pathway as we could.

Also, which I spoke about previously, is that if there are signs and symptoms of infection that we might not be able to determine clinically because we don't see that occult or very distinct cellulitic band around the wound, or there maybe isn't a ton of purulent discharge, some of these clinical signs and symptoms we rely on, but AI technologies, because they can really drill down and look at things a lot better than we can, it can determine hey, this wound might be reaching that critical colonization infection and we could apply antimicrobial sooner so patients don't have wounds that deteriorate, send them to the ER, and then hospitalize, and we know what happens. Unfortunately, they can have surgical procedures or amputations to follow.

I think at attending seminars, virtual and in person, is really important. The exhibit halls, there's a lot of new technologies. These theragnostic devices I think are really exciting that can help us again, detect these nuances in the wounds, and we're going to see more and more of that. We're already used to having our cell phones and using some smart tech and wearables, so we're going to see that transition in into medical care. And I think just reading and being aware of what's on the horizon is really important, in AI and really in all aspects of wound care and medicine.