Burns experts at Newcastle Hospitals are the first in the world to be using a potentially revolutionary AI tool that helps predict how someone’s injuries will heal in less than a second.
The team at the Royal Victoria Infirmary’s Northern Regional Burn Centre are using a tool called DeepView produced by firm Spectral AI. This uses “multispectral imaging and artificial intelligence” to provide information about a burn that is not perceivable by the human eye.
The imaging provides a picture of a patient’s wound across different parts of the electromagnet spectrum. The new tool can be used as soon as the first day someone is injured – and this means doctors and nurses can quickly decide how best to treat a patient.#
Consultant plastic surgeon, Mr Christopher Lewis, who works at the RVI, recently presented their experience of using the technology at a conference organised by the British Burn Association and the International Society for Burn Injuries.
Mr Lewis said: “Newcastle is the first centre in the world to trial DeepView and we’re very proud to have hosted it over the last few months across our adult service. We’re a service where laser doppler imaging (LDI) is very heavily ingrained which can be used 48 hours after a burn injury for assessments but DeepView can be used on day one.
“We’ve been able to use it on the wards, we’ve taken it to theatres and have compared our clinical information with how the device is interpreting the wound depth.”
The technology had been used in 41 cases pertaining to adults aged from 19 to 85. He added that colleagues felt the device’s portability and timing were excellent and it provided very good quality images.
Prof. Paul Chadwick, Vice President of Spectral AI in the UK said: “We’ve had interest from across the globe, with lots of American and European healthcare professionals wanting to know about the technology and when can they get it. People can see the real value in the technology and how it might change the way they can care for their patients.”
