USING 3D MODELING AND NEURAL NETWORKS TO PREDICT TIME-TO-HEAL FOR CHRONIC, NON-HEALING WOUNDS

摘要

Chronic, non-healing ulcers are expensive to treat and heal. Approximately 2% of the United States' general population suffers from non-healing wounds. Conservatively, the cost of treating these chronic wounds is estimated to exceed $50 billion per year. This is approximately ten times more than the annual budget of the World Health Organization. The prevalence of wound healing is similar to that of heart failure and cardiac diseases. However, unlike cardiac diseases little is known regarding the comparative treatments of wounds and their respective outcomes. Additionally, the field of monitoring and tracking wound care lacks the awareness compared with cardiac diseases. The "normal" wound healing processes experienced by most people is a complex biological process. Chronic wound care has since been a difficult topic to breach because the evaluation and treatment differ so greatly from patient to patient and clinic to clinic, but has become increasingly important due to our epidemic of obesity and diabetes, as this particular population is most susceptible to health issues.