MOBILE APPLICATION FOR PREVENTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF PRESSURE ULCERS

• Grant number: 13/11226-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2013
• End date: January 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Nursing
• Principal Investigator: Silvia Helena Zem-Mascarenhas
• Grantee: Chris Mayara dos Santos Tibes
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The smartphone popularization has been considered one of the most impacting technological revolution of last years. The use of computational tools in healthcare is becoming increasingly widespread, since this type of support can provide better precision and agility to professionals in their daily functions. Patient safety is one of the most discussed topic nowadays and it presents a large gap to technology resources application. Moreover, the Brazilian Ministry of Health released the ordinance nº 529 of 2013 April 1st, which created the National Patient Safety Program in order to contribute to the care process quality in all health institutes. In order to support nurses in their professional practice, this project aims to develop a prototype of a mobile application that supports the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers. The prevention module will provide a measurement scale for predicting the ulcer pressure risk. The mobile application will also deliver care suggestions to be applied in the patient. The treatment module will automatically identify, from a taken image, the pressure ulcer degree and will suggest the proper treatment based on this degree.