A new device has been unveiled that will improve how patients, carers and clinicians manage wound dressings and dressing changes.
Woundcare costs the NHS an estimated £2billion a year and there are 200,000 patients with chronic wounds at any one time in the UK. Often the scale of the problem is masked by the fact many of those affected are housebound.
Now Ohmedics has launched WoundSense, a sterile sensor that can be placed inside any wound dressing when it is placed on the affected skin.
Once in position, a small hand-held meter can be attached at any time to read if the dressing needs to be changed. The sensor monitors how moist the dressing is without any need to disturb it. A small level of moisture is actually needed to allow a wound to heal, but wet dressings can cause tissue breakdown and leakage and dressings that are too dry may impair a wound from closing.
Professor Trish Connolly, chief executive of Ohmedics, said: “The WoundSense sensor and meter provide a simple five-drop scale, where one drop is dry, three drops is moist and five drops is wet, and that can help the patient and carer decide if a dressing needs to be changed.
“The ability to read the dressing moisture status without taking the dressing off will lead to less trauma and pain for the patient, savings on wound dressings and also savings on nurse and carer time.
“Less dressing disturbance also means better healing, less chance of infection and lower costs.”
In addition to launching the equipment, Ohmedics has also worked with NHS South Tyne and Wear’s telehealth team to develop protocols that allow the meter and sensor to be used with the NHS Florence mobile phone application for patient home monitoring. Patients are prompted by text to take a dressing moisture readings and they can text the result to Florence. The app automatically checks whether or not the patient needs a dressing change and lets the patient know what the status is. If the dressing is not wet and does not need to be changed, this avoids an unnecessary visit by a district nurse and a potentially painful dressing change.
