Research and development of “SMART+” pressure ulcer warning instrument and system

Purpose This paper focuses on developing a pressure ulcer warning system to help early and accurate clinical prediction of pressure ulcers. Methods The system was developed by combining pressure ulcer care technology from the nursing discipline with sensor technology from the physical discipline and data transmission technology from the computer discipline. The system contains sensor array measuring the physiological indexes and software mod-ule analyzing the data. The array of sensors will collect the level and duration of the pressure, the changes of pressurized surface temper-ature and the blood oxygen saturation. All data will upload to the software for further analyzing. Then results will output in the recep-tors showing to evaluators. Results The system can provide objective data concluding pressure, surface temperature, local blood oxy-gen saturation to the evaluators for early diagnosing pressure ulcers. But all the functions need more experimentation to prove its validity and improve it. Conclusion The “SMART+” pressure ulcer warning instrument and system has high feasibility and value for re-searching and developing.

I. Introduction

Pressure injury (PU) refers to a pathological process in which multiple factors are involved, including continuous is-chemia, hypoxia and nutrient deficiency caused by long-term local pressure on the body, resulting in loss of normal skin function and tissue damage and necrosis.