Doctors could soon use artificial intelligence (AI) to decide whether burn patients need surgery to prevent permanent scarring.
Currently, it can take up to two days for doctors to determine whether the burns are severe enough to require skin grafts – but the new system takes less than 30 seconds.
The technology uses a specially designed camera connected to a computer with an AI program that can accurately identify irreversibly damaged skin nine times out of ten.
Experts say the device, called DeepView, will significantly reduce the time patients wait to undergo surgery.
The technology uses a specially designed camera connected to a computer with an AI program that can accurately identify irreversibly damaged skin nine times out of 10 (Stock Image)
Currently, doctors typically rely on scanning machines in hospitals, which often have a significant wait time to access.
Research also shows that surgeons accurately assess the severity of burns in only about half of the cases.
About 175,000 people are admitted to hospital with burns in Britain every year.
About 1,000 of them are judged to be so severely damaged that a transplant is needed – where a piece of skin is removed from part of the body and transplanted onto the burned area.
This procedure is necessary when doctors believe that the burned skin will not recover, usually because the blood vessels have been irreversibly damaged, preventing the flesh from healing.
Currently, doctors typically rely on scanning machines in hospitals, which often have a significant wait time to access (Stock Image)
The DeepView technology, which was presented at the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) North East Meeting in Newcastle, is designed to detect this blood vessel damage.
Researchers developed it by showing the AI thousands of images of different burns to teach it how to assess the range of potential damage, from minor to severe.
“You can give patients a much quicker answer as to whether they need a skin graft,” says Mr Chris Lewis, a burn specialist at the Northern Regional Burn Center where the DeepView is being tested.
‘And it also appears to be more accurate at detecting this serious damage than doctors. This is groundbreaking technology.’
