Thermal Wound Imaging

This work was awarded first place at the Journal of Wound Care Awards in the category “Innovation in Surgical Site Infection”
(London, March 2018)

Despite great advances in medical technologies in the past few decades, diagnoses or treatments of wound infections still do not take place until apparent symptoms (visible pus or discharge) or discomforts reported by the patient. Currently, medical professionals can assess wound infection either by visual inspection or taking tissue samples from a wound. There are very few reliable methods for earlier detection or even prediction of infection.

However, a healthy-looking wound may go onto develop infection. As a precautionary measure, the medical professionals thus treat patients with healthy wounds with antibiotics, contributing to an overuse of antibiotics in some of the patients.

Working with clinical researcher at Sheffield Hallam University, EEE academic (Dr Jon Willmott) applies thermal imaging on caesarean wounds as part of an overall project addressing issues in the area of surgical site infection (SSI). The project was carried out to investigate if thermal imaging can offer a new and more effective SSI diagnostic tool to medical professionals It focused on establishing a relationship between temperature and likelihood of SSI. Thermal images of the wound area were taken and a tailored computer algorithm was developed to give accurate predictions of infection probability. This work was awarded first place at the Journal of Wound Care Awards in the category “Innovation in Surgical Site Infection” (London, March 2018).

Lead Researchers

• Professor Charmaine Childs
• Dr. Jon Willmott