The revolutionary DeepView device, showcased at the BAPRAS North East Meeting in Newcastle, uses AI to quickly assess burn severity, potentially reducing wait times and improving accuracy in determining the need for skin grafts in burn injury cases across the UK.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is poised to revolutionize the treatment of burn injuries in the UK. The new device, known as DeepView, utilizes a camera and AI software to swiftly and accurately assess the severity of burns. This tool can determine in under 30 seconds whether a patient’s burns are severe enough to necessitate skin grafts— a process that currently takes doctors up to two days.
The DeepView technology was showcased at the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons’ (BAPRAS) North East Meeting in Newcastle. Developed by experts at the Northern Regional Burn Centre, the system has been trained with thousands of images of varying burn severities to recognize irreversible damage to blood vessels, a key factor in determining the need for surgical intervention.
In the UK alone, around 175,000 people are hospitalized with burn injuries annually, with approximately 1,000 requiring skin grafts. Traditionally, assessment of burns for such treatments relies on hospital scanning equipment, which can have significant wait times. Studies indicate that currently, surgeons only accurately assess the need for grafts in about 50% of cases.
DeepView promises to not only deliver faster assessments but also improve the accuracy of these evaluations, potentially changing the way burn injuries are managed in medical settings.
