Telehealth firm Coviu has disclosed that it will work on a project to create a new digital toolkit for telehealth wound care. It will work in tandem with the government research agency Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the Western NSW Primary Health Network, university partners The University of Sydney and The University of Technology Sydney, and insurance firm Australian Unity. 

The company received roughly A$6.5 million ($4.5 million) funding from the federal government's Medical Research Future Fund for this project, which will start development next year. Coviu targets to release its digital wound care toolkit on its platform in 2026. 

WHAT IT'S FOR

According to a media release, the suite of digital tools will serve as a "one-stop-shop" for clinicians treating wounds. Through AI-powered mobile imaging, practitioners can remotely analyse and monitor wounds. Access to wound data will also help them make decisions about wound management, especially determining changes that might indicate infection and a patient's body reaction to a wound or medication.

WHY IT MATTERS

Telehealth wound care is especially needed in residential aged care facilities where challenges are evident, given that senior people are more susceptible to chronic wounds due to their comorbidities and age-associated factors. Coviu raises the concern over the lack of expert and specialist wound support in Australia's aged care sector, particularly in rural and far-flung areas where there are challenges to care access and healthcare workforce shortages. 

To be co-designed with consumers and health professionals, the upcoming telehealth tools will be tested in residential aged care facilities in Victoria and New South Wales. "Part of this testing involves assessing how the technology can best be rolled out and integrated into routine healthcare," noted Georgina Luscombe, associate professor at the University of Sydney School of Rural Health.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Outside Australia, researchers from the National University of Singapore have come up with a point-of-care wound assessment platform called VeCare which consists of a smart bandage with sensors and a mobile app for remote wound monitoring. The wearable device can detect factors of chronic wounds within 15 minutes. 

Also in Singapore, the Changi General Hospital and Singapore University of Technology and Design have developed a monitoring device that can differentiate blood from other bodily fluids to detect patient bleeding episodes. The Blood Warning Technology with Continuous Haemoglobin sensor can be deployed for on-site monitoring of traumatic wounds.

ON THE RECORD

"The wound care digital toolkit gives us an enormous opportunity to make a difference to the health and quality of life of aged care residents. It will support clinicians, such as GPs, to make data-informed clinical decisions for wound care during a telehealth video call. It will also allow more clinicians to provide high-quality wound care to residential aged care settings. The toolkit will continue building Coviu’s AI digital tools to support health care providers," said Dr Annie Banbury, clinical research lead at Coviu.

"User-centred design and rigorous clinical validation are at the heart of this project. Our multidisciplinary team will bring new AI computer vision technologies into a clinical setting and create products that will address often overlooked and preventable health issues," Dr Oliver Salvado, head of imaging and computer vision at CSIRO, also commented.