It's called the Braden Scale, and it ranks patients' risk of a skin breakdown known as pressure injuries.
But even though it's widely used in the US, Canada's McMaster Children's Hospital wants to see if a handheld device called the MIMOSA Pro will be more effective at identifying the injuries in patients with darker skin pigmentation, the Hamilton Spectator reports.
"Current practice in hospitals across North America is for health-care providers to visually check for risk of pressure injuries using something called the Braden Scale, which rates a patient's risk of skin breakdown by how it appears as well as discomfort or pain, exposure to moisture, the patient's ability to reposition their body, friction against the skin, and nutrition," says Ari Collerman, chief of interprofessional practice at the hospital.
"This patient population is more difficult to assess with the current, standard tools involving a visual inspection," Collerman says.
"As a result, pressure injuries may not be identified as early as they could be."
With the MIMOSA Pro, doctors can take a photo of a patient's skin and upload it to the hospital's secure health records system, where it can be tracked over time, Collerman says.
Pressure injuries, also known as a beds
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