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E34: How AI is advancing bedside wound treatment (and reducing patient exposure to COVID-19)

Updated: Aug 24, 2023

Ask AI check-in host Carolyne Pelletier meets the engineering team at Swift Medical to learn


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AI is advancing bedside wound treatment


More than 6.5 million people in North America have chronic wounds that require ongoing care.

In Canada, 30-50% of all healthcare involves a wound. Without regular care, these patients can

face infections that drive hospitalization, amputation, and even death.


The elderly population is at the greatest risk of serious complications from both contracting

COVID-19 and developing wounds. Today, many of these vulnerable wound patients are under

quarantine or in isolation, and without access to the vital wound care they need. If essential care

is postponed or improperly delivered, patients are 20 times more likely to end up in hospital and


While many healthcare organizations have adopted virtual care to reach patients

During COVID-19, most solutions lack the high resolution, scientifically calibrated images, sub-millimeter accuracy, and proper lighting that are critical to remotely assessing and treating wounds.



AI is advancing bedside wound treatment


Beyond virtual care


The Telewound Care Canada project is developing and deploying a technology solution that

enables patients to access wound care from their own homes, without having to risk exposure to

COVID-19.


Through this initiative (funded by Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster) Toronto-based Swift Medical is providing frontline clinicians access to its mobile application to help improve the accuracy of wound measurements taken in the field.


Swift brings deep compute to the bedside to enable the clinician to dedicate more time to the

patient than to documentation, whether in person or remotely.


"Our AI encodes expert-level clinical domain knowledge, to enable automated identification of the wound boundaries, measurement to millimeter precision in 3-dimensions, and looking inside the wound to classify and quantify the types of tissues within. Essentially determining the severity of the wound completely objectively, with minimal input required from the clinician. The data all feeds back into our risk and prognostic models, guiding clinicians in what’s going to happen to the patient, and soon, what to do next."

- Justin Allport, Chief Engineer and Co-Founder at Swift Medical


Tune in to this Check-In as host Carolyne Pelletier checks in with Justin Allport, Chief Engineer and Co-Founder at Swift Medical to ask the question: How is AI advancing bedside wound treatment (and reducing patient exposure to COVID-19)?


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Episode credits


Sponsors: Microsoft Canada's Free AI Business School and Cinchy, the Dataware platform that eliminates integration Chatbot partner: Ada Support Series Producer: Chris McLellan Episode Host: Carolyne Pelletier Series Editor: James Fajardo Original music: Mike LeTourneau

About Ask AI

Ask AI is a volunteer project exploring Canada's fast-emerging artificial intelligence sector. Our projects include thought leader interviews, team check-ins, and live events. To learn more about sponsorships, guest blogs, and volunteering, please contact us or ask our chatbot.


Episode transcript


Please note: this transcript was generated by an artificial intelligence and some typos are invevitable:



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