Technical Overview of a Web-based Telemedicine System for Wound Assessment

Abstract

This report provides a technical overview of a Web-based telemedicine system for monitoring wounds in patients who do not have immediate access to the services of a consulting physician, including patients at home or in long-term-care facilities. Such a system would allow for the easy transmission and access of digital images of a patient's wounds and would allow multiple types of data required for comprehensive management of a patient's condition to be summarized and displayed. A store-and-forward method of data transmission was chosen for this project, rather than real-time videoconferencing, to limit the use of expensive technology and to maximize convenience for both the patient and the consulting physician. Under the store-and-forward technique, a clinician obtains wound data from the patient, then transmits these data to a Web site where the telemedicine physician can view data from multiple patients at his or her convenience.

Robust tissue classification for reproducible wound assessment in telemedicine environments

“…Pioneer experiments in this area consisted simply of uploading images to a web site where a physician could view the data at his convenience. 1 In more recent studies, image processing has been added, but it provides only ulcer stage grading. 2 The quantitative assessment of chronic wounds still relies 3,4 on visual inspection and manual techniques, to describe the shape of the wound ͑perimeter, surface, depth, etc.͒ and the biological nature of the skin tissues ͑percent-age of each class, wound severity stage, burn degree, etc.͒.…”

Accuracy of a Web-based System for Monitoring Chronic Wounds

“…The specific data collection components were based on the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now the Agency for Health Research and Quality) guidelines on treatment of pressure ulcers. 14 Information on the system's data collection protocol and technical specifications are published elsewhere 15 or can be viewed at http://www.hsrd.annarbor.med.va.gov/telemed_toc.htm.…”

Enhanced Assessment of the Wound-Healing Process by Accurate Multiview Tissue Classification

“…Pioneer experiments in this area consisted simply in uploading images to a web site where a physician could view the data at his convenience [30]. In more recent studies, image processing has been added but it provides only ulcer stage grading [26].…”