Nursing and Informatics for the 21st Century – Embracing a Digital World, 3rd Edition
Book 3: Innovation, Technology, and Applied Informatics for Nurses
2022 Productivity Press: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003281016
Chapter 8
Authors: Usman Iqbal, Chun-Kung (Rock) Hsu, Yu-Chuan (Jack) Li
Taiwan has been advancing the use of health information technologies with a priority to improve healthcare. However, there is also an increasing demand for long-term care. The Ministry of Welfare of Taiwan (2016) estimated that the population requiring long-term care will increase from 577,457 residents in 2017 to 771,431 in 2026, with a growing elderly population aged 65 years and older. In this chapter, we present a case study titled ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) Smart Camera: Developing Deep Learning Prediction Model on Pressure Ulcer Changes in Long-Term Bedridden Patients,’ which aims to use artificial intelligence to build an algorithm for pressure ulcer detection (Ministry of Science and Technology Industry 2021). The researchers combined daily videos of patients’ activity and medical records to build a model to detect individual needs to prevent infection risks and reduce complications. Within one year of this study, four different pressure ulcer cases were collected in the clinic, including 824 sets of daily photos. Nearly 300 videos of pressure ulcer cases were also collected which identify the subtle changes of the wounds and detect patients’ individualized needs for changing position and addressing wound conditions. The AI-based model for predicting changes in pressure ulcers was built to personalize care and enable earlier prevention and prediction that can also help identify best practices in the treatment of the ulcer. This model can also provide evidence for healthcare professionals in developing guidelines about which treatments are optimal for a comparable type of ulcer.
Moreover, this case study will also help improve the quality of patient care, reducing healthcare costs related to complications and minimizing the financial burden. Building an AI-based pressure ulcer model is also beneficial in promoting the application of AI in healthcare-related industries, reducing costs and improving the quality of care.