Method and system for wound assessment and management

Abstract

Described herein is a system and method for determining characteristics of a wound. The system includes a first imaging sensor that obtains imaging information of a wound area and a second imaging sensor that obtains topology information of the wound area. The system further includes circuitry that designates a representative background portion of the wound area from the imaging information of the wound area, that designates a representative wound portion of the wound area from the imaging information of the wound area, that determines the boundary of the wound portion within the imaging information of the wound area based on the designated representative background and wound portions, that correlates the imaging information and the topology information, that applies the boundary of the wound portion designated within the imaging information to the topology information to designate a mask area, and that determines characteristics of the wound portion within the mask area based on the topology information and the imaging information.

1 . A method of treatment of a medical injury, comprising:
 obtaining, using a two-dimensional image sensor, a two-dimensional image of an area of interest;   obtaining, using a depth camera with structured-light sensor, a depth map of the area of interest, the depth map representing a three-dimensional surface topography;   determining, using processing circuitry, a boundary of an injury portion within the two-dimensional image of the area of interest;   correlating, using the processing circuitry, the two-dimensional image and the depth map;   applying, using the processing circuitry, the boundary of the injury portion designated within the two-dimensional image to the depth map to designate a mask area;   determining, using the processing circuitry, characteristics of the injury portion within the mask area based on both the depth map and the two-dimensional image; and   instructing, using the processing circuitry, treatment of the medical injury based on the determined characteristics of the injury portion within the mask area.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 treating the medical injury based on the determined characteristics of the injury portion within the mask area using one or more of a pressure-ulcer treatment, a diabetic-ulcer treatment, an arterial-insufficiency-ulcer treatment, a venous-stasis ulcer treatment, and a burn-wound treatment.   
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 storing, using a non-transitory computer readable storage, the two-dimensional image and the depth map to document progress over time of the medical injury;   comparing, using the processing circuitry, the determined characteristics of the injury portion within the mask area to wound-healing benchmarks to generate a comparison; and   revising, using the processing circuitry, the instructing of the treatment of the medical injury based in the comparison.   
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the instructing of the treatment of the medical injury further includes recommending a skin substitute and providing a current procedural terminology (CPT) coding guideline for the recommended skin substitute. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the instructing of the treatment of the medical injury further includes
 providing the two-dimensional image and the depth map to a remote location that is remote from a location of the medical injury,   generating a treatment plan at the remote location, and   transmitting the treatment plan to the location of the medical injury, wherein   the instructing, using the processing circuitry, of the treatment of the medical injury is performed using the transmitted treatment plan.   
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 designating, using the processing circuitry, a representative background portion of the area of interest from the two-dimensional image of the area of interest; and   designating, using the processing circuitry, a representative injury portion of the area of interest from the two-dimensional image of the area of interest, wherein   the determining of the boundary of the injury portion within the two-dimensional image is performed based on the designated representative background portion and the injury portion.   
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 6 , further comprising designating, using the processing circuitry, a representative injury portion of the area of interest from the two-dimensional image of the area of interest based on user input or pixel characteristic differences. 
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising classifying, using the processing circuitry, the injury portion within the mask area by dividing the injury portion into tiles, to calculate a measure of central tendency for imaging values of each tile, and to classify each tile using injury type information generated by a previously trained support vector machine, wherein the injury type information includes healthy, slough, and eschar tissue. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 8 , wherein the previously trained support vector machine generates the injury type information using circuitry configured to, for a set of annotated images, divide each image into tiles, to calculate a measure of central tendency for imaging values of each tile, to designate each tile according to an injury type, and to apply cross-validation using a separate test set. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the characteristics of the injury portion within the mask area include a depth, a width, and a length of the injury. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the characteristics of the injury portion within the mask area include a perimeter, an area, and a volume of the injury. 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises determining, using the processing circuitry, the boundary of the injury portion within the two-dimensional image of the area of interest by utilizing a grab cut algorithm. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises determining, using the processing circuitry, the boundary of the injury portion within the two-dimensional image of the area of interest by detecting contours in the representative injury portion of the area of interest. 
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises determining, using the processing circuitry, the boundary of the injury portion within the two-dimensional image of the area of interest by detecting contours in the representative injury portion of the area of interest and iterating over all the contours. 
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the medical injury is a wound. 
     
     
         16 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the depth camera with structured-light sensor includes a transmitter configured to transmit structured light and a receiver configured to sense reflections and backscatter of the structured light. 
     
     
         17 . The method according to  claim 16 , wherein the structured light has an infrared spectrum.