Computer-Aided Systems for Burn Assessment

A burn injury is the result of an energy transfer that destroys skin and adjacent tissues. For successful evolution of a burn injury, it is essential to initiate the correct first treatment as soon as possible. The first treatment depends on assessment of burn severity. The main factors that determine the severity of burns are burn surface area, depth, and location. As the cost of maintaining a Burn Unit is high, it would be desirable to have an automatic system to give a first assessment in local medical centers or at the site of emergency, where there is a lack of specialists. If a patient with burn wounds arrives at a medical center without a Burn Unit, a telephone communication is established between the local medical center and the closest hospital with a Burn Unit, and the nonexpert doctor describes subjectively the color, shape, and other aspects considered important for burn characterization. In many cases, the result is the application of an incorrect first treatment or unnecessary displacement of the patient, involving high healthcare cost and psychological trauma for the patient. These conditions, together to the fact that a burn patient is usually treated initially in a primary health center, call for the use of a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) tool in clinical practice. Procedures and systems for CAD have gained acceptance in medicine. However, the extension of the CAD concept to the analysis of color images of skin lesions is developing at a slower pace due to difficulties in translating human color perception into objective rules that may be analyzed by a computer. This seminar will present the state of the art and current research work on CAD tools for burn assessment. For further information contact: Professor Raj Rangayyan – ranga@ucalgary.ca

Location:

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) 516

Speaker:

Begona Acha, PhD – Signal Processing and Communications Department, University of Seville, Spain

More information at http://www.ucalgary.ca/events/calendar/computer-aided-systems-burn-assessment