Israeli MedTech Startup Healthy.io Offers Solution For Chronic Wound Care

Israeli medical tech startup Healthy.io announced this month that it launched a new digital solution for the management of chronic wounds in the United States. The company is known for developing a smartphone-based urine albumin test, Dip UTI, which aids the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease and for which it has FDA clearance. Healthy.io also has FDA clearance for ACR, a second urinalysis test that lets people with diabetes or high blood pressure reliably test themselves at home for kidney disease.

In a blog post, Healthy.io’s US General Manager Paula LeClair wrote that the new solution offering digital wound assessment and management will “equip clinicians with the tools they need to assess, track and heal chronic wounds,” which are wounds that may take several months or even years to heal. Examples of such wounds include diabetic foot ulcers, arterial ulcers caused by impaired circulation, and pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores caused by prolonged immobility that damages the skin. There are also chronic wounds caused by obesity.

These types of wounds are a “global, silent epidemic, affecting tens of millions of people around the world, wrote LeClair, adding that they “generally impact an already vulnerable, chronically ill, and older population and can limit the mobility, social interaction, and mental health of patients.” They also take a toll on healthcare systems which are ill-equipped to consistently and accurately measure chronic wounds.

“Without an accurate method of record-keeping, clinicians struggle to share and track results over time, possibly leading to prolonged healing times, and growing distress for patients,” she wrote.

LeClair said that Healthy.io’s new solution, following the success of its digital urinalysis service, “is designed to fit naturally into the workflow of time-strapped wound care professionals, making documenting wounds as simple as taking a selfie.”

Clinicians will use a smartphone app and two calibration stickers placed around a wound to track its dimensions and scan it for quick measurement. The scanned images will automatically be calibrated for size, depth, lighting, and dimensions to “ensure that wound data is standardized across the board.” The technology also builds a 3D image of the wound enabling more comprehensive documentation.

With the app, clinicians can also “document the administered treatment plan, reference past treatment and normalize past photos, and create a report summarizing each wound’s progress over time.” The data is automatically uploaded to the clinical record so that all clinicians involved in the care of the patient can reference it.

The service can not only help clinicians and nurses do their work more objectively and consistently, it can also “promote evidence-based care decisions and reduce further complications, setting a new standard for wound care,” LeClair wrote.

The wound care solution has been registered with the FDA and is also CE marked, according to the announcement.

Healthy.io was founded in 2013 by Yonatan Adiri, who also serves as CEO, and has raised some $90 million to date.