Medical device company Bruin Biometrics (BBI), is linking the SEM Scanner, its wireless point-of-care device for pressure ulcer detection, to a digital registry for pressure ulcers known as “PUNT” (Pressure Ulcer Notification Tool) as it steps up its war on a life-threatening condition that claims as many lives in the U.S. as most cancers.

Pressure ulcers impact nearly 5 million patients in Europe and North America with treatment costs exceeding $13 billion nearly 500,000 of those cases occur in the UK, posing a £2.1 billion problem to the NHS. BBI announced that it has licensed PUNT, an online tool conceptualized by tissue viability expert Mark Collier and developed by United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT), one of the largest acute hospital trusts in England.

PUNT has been used within ULHT to facilitate real-time recording of in-patient pressure injury and directly links with the Trusts’ patient management system to standardize and facilitate intervention and treatment. Since incorporating PUNT into pressure ulcer prevention protocols in 2011, the Trust has reduced the incidence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs) by nearly 0.9 to 40%, compared with the national reported incidence rate of 4 to 6%.

BBI will offer PUNT as a complement to its SEM Scanner, the first and only device to reveal pressure-induced tissue damage happening beneath the skin’s surface up to 10 days ahead of visual signs of damage occur.

The addition of PUNT strengthens SEM Scanner’s position as the first prevention, warning and management system for pressure ulcers. With this system, there will be one place to track and retrieve information on patient diagnosis, treatments and progress across care settings as patients move from home care to acute care and to community care settings.

This system’s benefits will transform pressure ulcer patient management by:

1. Incorporating patient diagnostic information (i.e., SEM Scanner values) as a critical data point in developing a personalized pressure ulcer care plan;

2. Facilitating early intervention and improved compliance through alerts for clinicians i.e., based on SEM Scanner detection of pressure injury or when assessments are overdue and lists appropriate care interventions;

3. Enabling patient-centered, joined-up care across care settings from prevention through recovery; and,

4. Creating an online, electronic platform that could serve as a global pressure ulcer registry to collect and report population data and to use evidence-based prevention and care pathways based on actual patient outcomes.

SEM Scanner is CE Mark approved and is currently in commercial launch in the EU and Canada. PUNT is currently deployed in United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Bruin Biometrics
bruinbiometrics.com