To Örebro University

SIGNIFICANCE: As the number of hard-to-heal wound cases rises with the aging of the population and the spread of chronic diseases, healthcare professionals struggle to provide safe and effective care to all their patients simultaneously. This study aimed to provide an in-depth overview of the relevant methodologies of artificial intelligence (AI) and their potential implementation to support these growing needs of wound care and management.

RECENT ADVANCES: MEDLINE, Compendex, Scopus, Web of Science and IEEE databases, were all searched for new AI methods or novel uses of existing AI methods for diagnosis or management of hard-to-heal wounds. We only included English peer-reviewed original articles, conference proceedings, published patent applications or granted patents (not older than 2010) where the performance of the utilized AI algorithms was reported. Based on these criteria, a total of 75 studies were eligible for inclusion. These varied by the type of the utilized AI methodology, the wound type, the medical record/database configuration and the research goal.

CRITICAL ISSUES: AI methodologies appear to have a strong positive impact and prospect in the wound care and management arena. Another important development that emerged from the findings is AI-based remote consultation systems utilizing smartphones and tablets for data collection and connectivity.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS: The implementation of machine learning algorithms in the diagnosis and management of hard-to-heal wounds is a promising approach for improving the wound care delivered to hospitalized patients, while allowing healthcare professionals to manage their working time more efficiently.