Written by Ethan Ennals
May 12, 2024 01:51, Updated May 12, 2024 01:58
In the near future, doctors may use artificial intelligence (AI) to determine whether burn patients need surgery to avoid permanent scarring.
Currently, it can take doctors up to two days to determine whether a burn is serious enough to require a skin graft, but with the new system it takes less than 30 seconds.
The technology uses a specially designed camera attached to a computer with an AI program to accurately identify irreparably damaged skin nine times out of ten.
Experts say the device, called DeepView, will significantly reduce the wait time for patients to undergo surgery.
Click here to resize this module
At the moment, doctors typically have to rely on hospital scanning machines, which often require significant wait times to gain access.
Research also suggests that surgeons can accurately assess the severity of burn injuries in only about half of cases.
Approximately 175,000 people are admitted to hospital with burns each year in the UK.
About 1,000 of them are determined to have injuries severe enough to require a transplant, which involves removing a section of skin from one area of the body and grafting it onto the burnt area.
This procedure is usually necessary when a doctor determines that the burned skin will not recover because the blood vessels have been irreversibly damaged and the flesh cannot heal.
DeepView technology, unveiled at the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) North East Conference in Newcastle, is designed to detect this vascular damage.
The researchers developed this by showing the AI thousands of images of different burns and teaching it how to assess the range of potential damage from mild to severe.
“Patients can get answers sooner about whether they need a skin graft,” said Chris Lewis, a burn specialist at Northern Regional Burn Center, where DeepView is being tested.
“And we seem to be able to detect this severe damage more accurately than doctors. This is a revolutionary technology.”
