Pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, are one of the top ten harms in the NHS, affecting up to 10% of hospital patients and costing the health service an estimated £3.8 million every day. A new white paper released by Tunley Environmental and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust demonstrates how artificial intelligence (AI) could transform prevention and management, creating benefits for patients, healthcare budgets and the environment.
The white paper, Pressure Ulcer Prevention with AI: Improving Outcomes and Sustainability, introduces the Pressure Ulcer Clinical Pathway Aid (PU-CPA). Developed through the SBRI Healthcare programme, the tool combines predictive machine learning with clinical knowledge to recommend personalised, evidence-based pathways that reduce risks and improve patient care.
Co-authored by sustainability scientists Dr Aaron Yeardley, Dr Nathan Wood and Dr William Beer from Tunley Environmental, alongside Dr Jane Fearnside and Kelly Phillips from Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the white paper highlights the enormous clinical, financial and environmental challenges posed by pressure ulcers. Current management strategies, such as repositioning and pressure-redistributing devices, are often limited by difficulties in determining the most effective patient-specific care.
This article is also featured in:
News by Wire
Qwoted
Doncaster Free Press
Digital Health
To continue reading, please click the button below or download the whitepaper here.