An award-winning innovation developed by a University of Liverpool Honorary Lecturer could have a significant impact on the successful recovery of burns patients.
The Mersey Burns Tool is an application, or ‘App’, that can be used on an iPhone or iPad to enable clinical staff to quickly and accurately assess burn injuries, and ensure the correct information follows the patient if they are transferred.
It was developed by Honorary Clinical Lecturer in the Institute of Translational Medicine, Rowan Pritchard-Jones, alongside Whiston Hospital Clinical Director for Burns and Plastic Surgery, Paul McArthur, with programming by Chris Seaton at University of Manchester.
The App calculates the total body surface area burned, and the amount of fluids the patient requires, as well as incorporating significant factors like a patient’s age and height.
Having already scooped an Excellence in Innovation Award from Merseyside and Cheshire Health, Innovation and Education Clusters, the App has been shown to significantly improve assessment.
It can also be used to accurately assess injuries and correctly relay vital information to burns specialists elsewhere, prior to a patient arriving.
Rowan Pritchard-Jones, also Specialist Registrar for Plastic Surgery at Whiston Hospital, said: “The idea came from our own experiences as on-call burn surgeons at Whiston Hospital, guiding colleagues in other hospitals to accurately assess and resuscitate a burn injured patient. Getting this assessment right, requires a number of complex calculations, which can be vital to saving the patient’s life.
“I hope that using the Mersey Burns Tool will become standard practice for assessing all burn injuries, giving patients an even greater chance of recovery.”
The Mersey Burns Tool is currently awaiting registration by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency before going live.