Systems and methods for wound area management
First Claim
1. A system for determining and tracking the area of a wound, the system comprising:
- a film capable of receiving and retaining an outline tracing of the wound;
a backboard template comprising a background surface area and a reference surface area, said reference surface area visually contrasting with said background surface area, said backboard template generally sized to receive said film to form a film/template assembly;
a digital imaging device generally positioned at a spaced distance and angle from said film/template assembly, for acquiring a digital image of said film/template assembly including said reference surface area, said background surface area, and said wound tracing; and
a digital image processor for processing said image to determine an area within said wound tracing.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods for capturing and digitizing an image of a wound and/or a wound trace from a patient and determining there from a degree of change in the characteristics of the wound. A first embodiment includes a transparent/translucent film onto which a dark outline of the wound is traced. The film is fixed to a reference template that provides a geometrically defined reference area. The film/template assembly is imaged with a digital imaging device associated with a handheld digital processor (such as a PDA). The digital image of the template and the wound trace are analyzed to identify the wound tracing and quantify the area within the closed curve. A second embodiment includes imaging the wound site with a reference tag and viewing the image on a display with an associated graphical data input device. A trace of the wound perimeter is made on display with the graphical data input device to establish a data set for the wound perimeter. The data set for the wound trace and the reference tag are analyzed to identify and quantify the wound area. In each embodiment, the system includes a display for providing both a view of the wound trace and the calculated data associated with the wound area.
100 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A system for determining and tracking the area of a wound, the system comprising:
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a film capable of receiving and retaining an outline tracing of the wound;
a backboard template comprising a background surface area and a reference surface area, said reference surface area visually contrasting with said background surface area, said backboard template generally sized to receive said film to form a film/template assembly;
a digital imaging device generally positioned at a spaced distance and angle from said film/template assembly, for acquiring a digital image of said film/template assembly including said reference surface area, said background surface area, and said wound tracing; and
a digital image processor for processing said image to determine an area within said wound tracing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for determining and tracking the area of a wound, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing and selecting a film sized so as to be capable of receiving and retaining an outline tracing of the wound;
placing an inward surface of said film against the wound and tracing said wound with a marking instrument onto an outward surface of said film;
providing and selecting a backboard template sized in correspondence with said film, said backboard template comprising a background surface area and a reference surface area of predetermined dimensions, said reference surface area visually contrasting with said background surface area;
transferring said film from said wound to said backboard template to form a film/template assembly;
acquiring a digital image of said film/template assembly including said reference surface area, said background surface area and said wound tracing with a digital imaging device; and
processing said digital image to calculate a two dimensional area within the boundaries of said wound tracing. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for determining and tracking the area of a wound, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing and selecting a film sized so as to be capable of receiving and retaining an outline tracing of the wound;
placing an inward surface of said film against the wound and tracing the wound with a marking instrument onto an outward surface of said film;
providing and selecting a backboard template sized in correspondence with said film, said backboard template comprising a background surface area and a reference surface area of predetermined dimensions associated with said background surface area, said reference surface area visually contrasting with said background surface area;
transferring said film from said wound to said backboard template to form a film/template assembly;
acquiring a digital image of said film/template assembly including said reference surface area, said background area, and said wound tracing, with a digital imaging device;
establishing an image threshold level between light and dark pixels within the digital image data;
identifying and locating digital image data associated with said reference surface area of said film/template assembly;
reducing a region of interest in said digital image data to an area associated with said reference surface area;
identifying and locating digital image data associated with said wound tracing;
scaling said digital image data in at least two orthogonal spatial dimensions according to known actual dimensional values for said reference surface area;
carrying out integration functions on said wound tracing digital image data to calculate an area within the boundaries of said wound tracing;
eliminating distorted digital image data determined to be outside a predetermined range for said data and filtering said data to reduce extraneous data not associated with said reference surface area or said wound tracing; and
displaying the value of said calculated area within the boundaries of said wound tracing.
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Specification