For wound care providers and other clinicians, 2017 continued to bring about a chaotic storm of healthcare reform based on quality measures, data registry requirements, and documentation standards. As has been previously stated in this journal, it remains to be seen if wound care practitioners will pool their limited resources and harness the power of their electronic health records to battle the “giant of healthcare reform.”1 This country’s push to enact and substantiate quality of care delivery can be seen through the uniting of clinical practice with increasingly sophisticated digital technology that allows for more accurate documentation and communication. For good reason, the focus of this union is being placed on the perspective of the patient (ie, how the patient receives healthcare information). However, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a need for clinicians to be armed with devices that more easily and effectively facilitate the means to that end. This article will discuss the proliferation of healthcare-related digital apps that are both patient and clinician focused in an attempt to lay a foundation for wound care clinicians to become more technologically savvy and clinically compliant. https://www.todayswoundclinic.com/articles/will-mobile-apps-bring-wound-care-technology-cutting-edge

1. www.todayswoundclinic.com16 January 2018 Today’s Wound Clinic®
WILL MOBILE APPS BRING
WOUND CARE TECHNOLOGY
TO THE “CUTTING EDGE”?
Chrissy Stanojev
“In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to
step back into safety.”
– Abraham H. Maslow
F
or wound care providers and other
clinicians, 2017 continued to bring
about a chaotic storm of healthcare
reform based on quality measures, data
registry requirements,and documentation
standards.As has been previously stated in
this journal,it remains to be seen if wound
care practitioners will pool their limited
resources and harness the power of their
electronic health records to battle the“gi-
ant of healthcare reform.”1
This country’s
push to enact and substantiate quality of
care delivery can be seen through the
uniting of clinical practice with increas-
ingly sophisticated digital technology that
allows for more accurate documentation
and communication. For good reason,
the focus of this union is being placed on
the perspective of the patient (ie, how the
patient receives healthcare information).
However,it is becoming increasingly clear
that there is a need for clinicians to be
armed with devices that more easily and
effectively facilitate the means to that end.
This article will discuss the proliferation
of healthcare-related digital apps that are
both patient and clinician focused in an
attempt to lay a foundation for wound
care clinicians to become more techno-
logically savvy and clinically compliant.
HEALTHCARE APPS
@ YOUR FINGERTIPS
Today’s variety of digital healthcare
apps can be useful for patient educa-
tion and adherence, as well as for serv-
ing as treatment documentation tools.
(A sampling of apps is shown in Figure
1 above.) However, harnessing the in-
credible opportunity that specific apps
can bring to the wound care industry
space might be those that provide ac-
cess to patient outcomes data. In the
opinion of the author, mobile applica-
tions such as the TapCloud, eKare in-
Sight®
2.0, and Tissue Analytics could
change the wound care space as we
know it within the next 3-5 years.
These apps are examples of those that
aggregate important outcomes data (eg,
patient-generated health data [PGHD],
wound tissue data) into actionable in-
sights with the ability to dramatically
impact the quality of care being provid-
ed. In a time where quality, objective,
and timely recorded documentation
reigns supreme, these apps could be in-
strumental to the success of all wound
care clinicians. (It should be noted that
currently, none of these apps are recog-
nized by the Centers for Medicare
Medicaid Services [CMS] for the re-
porting of quality measure data as part
of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment
System [MIPS]. CMS does recog-
nize the Patient-Reported Outcomes
Measurement Information System for
FIGURE 1. Thumbnails featuring a variety of healthcare app choices. (Image provided by the author, with copyright
privileges obtained.)
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2. 17www.todayswoundclinic.com Today’s Wound Clinic®
January 2018
NewTechnologyTreatments
MIPS credit,2
although none of these
tools are specific to wound care.
TapCloud is a comprehensive plat-
form that covers more than 90 clini-
cal conditions and connects patients
and clinicians outside the clinical set-
ting. Rather than biometric data, such
as number of steps or blood pressure,
the data focus is on how the patient is
feeling (compared to yesterday). The
platform has two parts: the patient
app provides information to and col-
lects information from patients, and
the clinical dashboard synthesizes the
large volume of individual data points
and converts them into an easy-to-
use visualization. The app was created
as a way to capture the voice of the
patient by collecting the right data at
the right time to enable better health
outcomes.”3
TapCloud’s platform pro-
vides care plans, reminders, and criti-
cal health information to patients.
Through patent-pending technology,
information about the patient can be
gathered — information such as how
the patient is feeling, presence of any
pain or other symptoms, medication
and care plan tracking, disease progres-
sion, medication side effects, historical
behavior, and patient engagement.3
TapCloud then “translates” PGHD
into usable information for clinicians
and visualizations enable rapid, ef-
fective clinician intervention (that is
bilingual). In real time, clinicians can
grasp what is happening with a patient,
as well as potential contributing fac-
tors to their health status. Extensive
research and engineering by the in-
Sight 2.0 have validated overall system
accuracy and reproducibility of 3D
volumetric measurements.To that end,
the inSight device has been shown to
reduce intra- and interoperator vari-
ability while significantly reducing
time to acquire measurements. Built
to operate on an iPad and iPhone X,
the mobile platform and its use should
be familiar to clinicians. The app
streamlines wound measurement, as-
sessment, and treatment planning, and
obtaining wound measurement is as
simple as taking a photo using a tablet
or iPhone X. The eKare inSight is a
HIPAA-compliant cloud solution built
on Aptible, an organization that seeks
to help developers excel at data secu-
rity and compliance.Through this app,
users can safely share and analyze data
with their care teams on a common
platform to improve care coordination
and patient-centered management.
APPS THAT GATHER PGHD
QUALITY MEASURES DATA
Apps that provide PGHD are ahead
of the projected five-year curve in
which such data will be relied upon
more heavily; meaning that using these
apps will put wound care clinics, clini-
cians and their practices ahead of that
curve.4
Consider:
• Patient outcomes data are directly
related to the clinician’s practice,
allowing for identification of key
outcomes-related indicators, treat-
ment insight, and patient adherence
insight that clinicians can leverage
to make adjustments within their
own practice.
• Taking ownership of ample, viable
opportunities to pioneer this indus-
try vertical through partnerships that
enable clinicians to work with apps
and/or other technology developers
to request inclusion of information,
such as the U.S. Wound Registry’s
(USWR’s) MIPS-approved quality
measures, directly within the app.
• Leveraging apps to harness real-world
data to impact coverage based on
proven effectiveness through PGHD.
• Utilizing PGHD apps to serve as
clinician-listed “clinical practice
Figure 2. Rate of wound care industry’s social media posting volume, by platform. (Image provided by the author,
with copyright privileges obtained.)
Figure 3. Search volume comparison of “chronic condition” versus “wound healing” topics. (Image provided by
the author, with copyright privileges obtained.)
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3. 18 www.todayswoundclinic.comJanuary 2018 Today’s Wound Clinic®
NewTechnologyTreatments
improvement activities [CPIAs]”
under MIPS. (Note: Specific
CPIAs must be cross walked to the
list provided by CMS and submit-
ted to CMS through a qualified
clinical data registry.)
• Leveraging the unique, broad, and
diverse wound care specialty to
serve as a trusted strategic partner
for app developers, manufacturers,
and industry at large.
THINKING AHEAD/
CURRENT DIGITAL LANDSCAPE
Currently, social media data analysis
show that healthcare practitioners are
utilizing social media to communicate
with their peers rather than leverag-
ing social media as a tool to provide
information to patients/caregivers
and raise awareness of the wound care
industry (Figure 2, page 17). The
wound care space is unique; thus, find-
ing relevant or helpful information is
difficult and, in turn, leaves patients
and caregivers in a seemingly barren
“patient centered” digital landscape.
To identify a viable point of entry in
the social ecosystem for wound care,
one can look to similar or “lookalike
demographics” to better understand
the manner in which that target pa-
tient demographic communicates and
engages across the digital ecosystem.
For wound care, the lookalike audi-
ence is the larger and overwhelmingly
supportive chronic illness community
(ie, #Spoonies). By engaging with this
pre-existing community, wound care
can begin to carve its own niche pres-
ence. “Wound healing” search data,
in comparison to the large volume
of “chronic condition” search topic
queries, show viable opportunity for
engagement within the chronic illness
community (Figure 3, page 17).
THE BIG PICTURE
An omnipresent digital and social
ecosystem will effectively direct pa-
tients and caregivers to educational
information and raise awareness of the
wound care industry to improve healing
of chronic wounds and patients’ quality
of life.The future-forward approach for
wound care clinicians should be “app
inclusive, social media inclusive, and
digital presence inclusive.” n
Chrissy Stanojev is owner of PERMA
Logix LLC, an organization specializing in
the future of brand influence and connection
strategy. She can be reached at chrissy@per-
malogix.com.She has no financial disclosures
to report.
References
1. Fife CE. From the Editor:Wound care is the data un-
derdog. TWC. 11(8):4-12.
2. PROMIS.HealthMeasures.Accessed online:www.health-
measures.net/explore-measurement-systems/promis
3. Riley T. TapCloud Chosen for Patient-Generated
Health Data Pilot Demonstration. TapCloud. 2016.
Accessed online: www.tapcloud.com/news/re-
lease_10_19_16
4. Compton-Phillips A. Care Redesign Survey: What
Data Can Really Do for Health Care. NEJM Catalyst.
2017. Accessed online: https://catalyst.nejm.org/effec-
tiveness-healthcare-data-survey-analysis
As part of our edition on new technologies and treatments in wound care, Today’sWound Clinic offers this collection of news spotlighting industry,
company,and product trends.To help us keep the pulse on your organization’s new technologies and treatments,email jdarrah@hmpglobal.com.
Providers’ Attitudes Impact
Patients’ Technology Adoption
A new report published by The Lan-
cet claims that patients’access to emerg-
ing diabetes technology can be influ-
enced in part by the attitudes of their
healthcare clinicians towards embrac-
ing specific technologies. According
to the report Access to Diabetes Technol-
ogy: The Role of Clinician Attitudes, the
role of clinicians in recommending
or approving technology for patients
suggests that their attitudes could be
central in mediating patient access to
technology. Other factors taken into
account include funding limitations
and varying characteristics of different
clinics. Visit www.thelancet.com for
the full report. n
Company Introduces Sepsis App
ESCAVO Inc., a company based in
Los Angeles, CA, that develops mobile
health applications and digital health
content, has announced the release of
its Sepsis Timer app. The app offers a
timed checklist and clinical decision
support tool designed to help clinicians
perform key treatment steps within
prescribed time intervals. The treat-
ment steps and timelines are based on
Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines
that are also recommended by the In-
stitute of Healthcare Improvement and
TechnologyPulse
the Centers for Medicare Medicaid
Services, according to company of-
ficials. The app also provides expert
commentary and detailed explanations
of the guidelines throughout the step-
by-step checklist. Sepsis remains the
ninth leading cause of disease-related
death, according to the Third Interna-
tional Consensus on Sepsis. n
Smith Nephew Launches
MolecuLight in Europe
Officials at Smith Nephew,
London, have announced the launch
of the product MolecuLight i:X,™
a
handheld imaging device that instantly
measures wound surface area and visu-
Continue to page 23
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