Healing chronic wounds with telehealth tools

“The GEIS® camera is amazing, really amazing,” says registered nurse and wound-care expert, Hayley Ryan.  

Hayley, who is director of Australian wound-care group, WoundRescue, is participating in a virtual training session on how to use Visionflex’s GEIS® General Examination Camera HD. Hayley plans to use the digital camera in her practice to perform patient wound assessments and diagnoses via telehealth video call. 

So far, she likes what she sees: “The GEIS® provides really accurate detail about the wound,” says Hayley, who has 22 years’ experience in wound care. 

“These images will mean we have a higher accuracy rate of getting the diagnosis right, and that is important because wound treatment is informed by diagnosis, and if we don’t get the diagnosis and characteristics of the wound right, we can get the treatment wrong.” 

Up until now, says Hayley, who is also Chair of wound prevention and management NGO, Wounds Australia, digital cameras have never been technically competent to perform wound reviews. But the GEIS® camera has changed everything.  

The GEIS® captures medical grade images and video with true-to-life colour and full HD 1080p resolution that shows minute details – vital characteristics for remote assessment and diagnosis of wounds.  

Visionflex offers customers flexible remote training in the use of all its telehealth technology. Once training is completed, Hayley’s network of wound experts across Australia and New Zealand, will use the GEIS® camera to examine patients living in remote locations, connecting via video call with wound experts and medical specialists at the far end for collaborative assessment and diagnosis.  

Explaining the impact that the GEIS® camera will make, Hayley says: “Being able to access high-quality images and make a prompt and correct diagnosis in real time, means the patient receives an immediate and correct response. A misdiagnosis of a wound can end in drastic outcomes such as amputation. 

“Our motto at WoundRescue is ‘healing lives, not just wounds, together’. That’s what we focus on – we strive for lesser wounds in the community, so people are living longer and are experiencing optimal quality of life.” 

Hayley, who “loves new innovations”, believes that digital tools such as the GEIS® camera, are important for improving delivery of care to patients – particularly for patients living outside metropolitan areas. 

“At WoundRescue, we have a KPI to continue research and to look into innovative new ways of doing things. 

“The GEIS® is easy to use and that’s really important because we’re sending it out to clinicians to use and they need to know they can pick it up and just use it.” 

A passion for wound care

Hayley’s passion for wound care began almost 22 years ago when, as a young nurse, she helped care for her grandmother who had been diagnosed with chronic wounds on her lower legs and was facing bilateral amputation.

Hayley used her clinical skills and knowledge and guidance from senior clinicians and was able to heal her grandmother’s wounds over a four-month period. 

Hayley, made the decision to focus on wounds full-time, and established WoundRescue. The organisation provides a trio of services, including: 

Referrals: Patients from GP practices, aged care homes, community care and anyone who has a wound that requires more advanced wound care are referred to WoundRescue. The team performs a holistic assessment and diagnosis to determine a treatment plan and possible referral to a medical specialist. Treatments can also be provided directly by the WoundRescue team. 

Education and training: Wound care programs are available for health professionals and also consumers who may have a chronic wound, or people who are caring for someone with a chronic wound. 

Quality review: The team performs audits in aged care homes, GP clinics and hospitals to ensure they meet regulatory standards. 

“My mission has always been, how can we help people with chronic wounds to live a better life,” says Hayley.  

“The biggest problem is that wounds are a silent epidemic: People don’t want to hear about wounds…People are dying from wounds; people are having amputations; people are not going out and becoming depressed and having mental health issues because they don’t want their dressings to leak through. It’s very impactful. 

“If my team and I can help as many people as we can, to heal these wounds and help them live a more robust life, then we’re doing our job.” 

Read Part 1 of our wound care series to discover how Wound Awareness Week is bringing much needed attention to the hidden chronic wound epidemic and what more needs to be done to improve health outcomes for wound patients.

WoundRescue collaborates with clinicians and patients to enhance knowledge, build capacity, embed evidence-based practice, and relieve the symptoms of wounds for the person through our referral pathway. 

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