Above watch: Calgary researchers are hoping new technology will help prevent bed sores. Heather Yourex reports.
CALGARY – It’s been a year and a half since an automobile accident put Clay Richardson in a wheel chair. He spent three and a half months recovering from his injury in hospital before returning for an even longer stay due to a common complication.
“I went home and developed a pressure ulcer that put me in the hospital for five months,” Richardson said. “It was a serious infection, I had to have an operation, and it just took a long time to heal.”
Also known as bedsores, pressure ulcers are a common, dangerous complication for patients with limited mobility.
“They can actually cause a lot of discomfort and pain, sometimes severe infections, even death,” said Dr. Chester Ho, a researcher with the University of Calgary’s Ward of the 21st Century.
Ho’s team is currently testing new technology designed to help reduce the risk of pressure ulcers. The XSENSOR’s ForeSite Patient turn system uses a thin, censored bed mattress overlay to continuously monitor, analyze and report the level of pressure on patients.
“You see on a screen pressure areas around the body, and different colours correspond with the different pressures.”
The device allows health workers the ability to see whether patients need to re-positioned in real time. The technology is expensive: each unit costs around $15,000. But researchers believe, it could save much more in treatment costs.
The device is now being tested at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre. Researchers are hoping to enroll over 600 patients in the study.
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