Kevin Keenahan,  is the Chief Product Officer at Net Health and co-founder of Tissue Analytics, Inc., acquired by Net Health in 2020.

Net Health’s mission is to harness data for human health. They provide EHR software and predictive, actionable analytics for medical specialties, including rehab therapy, wound care, home health and hospice and worker health. Their solutions are trusted in over 23,000 facilities across the continuum of care, including the nation’s leading hospitals, expert nursing facilities, senior living facilities, home health and hospice agencies and outpatient clinics.

Could you share the genesis story of the way you got involved in wound care, and the way this resulted out of your graduate studies at John Hopkins University?

Back in 2013, I began my Master’s on the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID), which is an incredible program that provides young engineers the prospect to rotate through different clinical settings on the Johns Hopkins Hospital. I used to be fortunate enough to see chronic and acute wound care during these rotations and located the space fascinating, which led me to spend more dedicated time within the wound center at Hopkins.

Through that have, I noticed there was an absence of innovation within the wound care industry, with most wound care treatments counting on outdated methods and technologies to evaluate efficacy. I saw this as a possibility to make use of my engineering training to create an answer for wound care management that might facilitate higher data collection and improve chronic wound outcomes, leading me to found Tissue Analytics in 2014.

Tissue Analytics, Inc., was then acquired by Net Health in 2020. Could you share some details about this moment in time and why you selected to be acquired?

Net Health® Tissue Analytics uses machine learning to research wound images and robotically measure healing. The acquisition was highly strategic for us since it gave us a possibility to expand our reach and provided access to a much larger dataset for us to use to our machine learning methods. Joining forces with Net Health also allowed us to leverage their established position out there and access its network of healthcare providers, along with strengthening their inpatient wound care business.

How does Net Health use machine learning for wound tracking?

Net Health’s algorithms analyze thousands and thousands of images in seconds to robotically measure a wound’s size and colorimetric composition. It’s 90% more accurate than manual, ruler-based measurements, which have a 40% error rate. This capability results in a more objective story of healing to drive higher patient care and outcomes. This technology is the inspiration of our mobile wound imaging and analytics solution, which uses artificial intelligence combined with a smartphone to measure, characterize and analyze a chronic wound more accurately. Using the information collected within the wound imaging process, it also predicts whether a pressure injury is in danger for deterioration, a very essential feature for hospitals that get penalized for hospital-acquired pressure injuries.

Why is precise tracking of wound size so essential in healthcare?

There are just a few reasons. Precise tracking enables clinicians to observe the healing progress of a wound over time, make effective treatment decisions and estimate healing times. By frequently measuring the wound, providers can determine if the wound is healing as expected or if there are any signs of stalled healing. This helps providers make informed decisions about the fitting course of treatment and adjust these care plans as crucial. By providing a typical foundation of healing to all the care team, everyone including the patient now has an objective measure of progress that’s shared across providers in addition to care settings.

What other varieties of analytics might be offered for wound care?

In our wound care EHR product, Net Health® Wound Care, we will offer powerful predictions around amputation risk and total wound healing time. As well as, we provide a missed visit prediction indicator that flags patients in danger for missing a visit. This permits wound care providers to intervene, whether or not they help communicate with the patient directly or double-book to make sure they don’t lose revenue or time spent providing care.

Net Health goes beyond wound analytics, what other varieties of services are offered?

We also offer EHRs for full spectrum of rehab professionals, which include physical and occupational therapists and speech language pathologists. Our rehab therapy EHRs serve private practice clinics, hospital treatment units, hospital outpatient clinics, expert nursing facilities and assisted living communities. Our outpatient and personal practice EHR comes with a patient engagement suite, which helps clinics market their services and interact their patients through digital interactive tools and an automatic digital intake process.

In your opinion, why is the adoption of AI in healthcare so essential?

AI has the potential to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of healthcare operations, from diagnosis and treatment to the automation of administrative tasks. Algorithms can analyze vast amounts of information and discover patterns that might be difficult or unimaginable for humans to detect, enabling more accurate diagnoses, more personalized treatment plans, and higher resource allocation. It may even help to cut back healthcare costs by streamlining processes and reducing the necessity for manual labor. It may also help to enhance patient outcomes by enabling earlier diagnosis and treatment, reducing the danger of complications, and facilitating more personalized care. For instance, AI-powered wound care management platforms will help healthcare providers to trace wound healing progress more accurately, discover potential complications, and adjust treatment plans accordingly. Healthcare providers can improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and stay on the forefront of technological innovation in the sector with AI, so adoption is crucial if you have got not already utilized it.

Do you see a future for generative AI in healthcare?

Absolutely. AI will help to enhance the accuracy and speed of diagnosis, leading to higher outcomes for patients. Generative AI can analyze a patient’s medical history, genetic data, and other aspects to automate the documentation process while concurrently predicting which treatments are more than likely to be effective for that individual.

Tissue Analytics originally had the vision of reworking the smartphone into a classy imaging and diagnostic platform for chronic wounds, to redefine how wound care is delivered. Could you share how your vision has evolved over time?

Following the acquisition by Net Health, Tissue Analytics has continued to develop its wound care management platform, while also integrating its technology into Net Health’s broader suite of healthcare solutions. This has enabled Tissue Analytics to expand its capabilities and include functionality for predicting the deterioration of pressure injuries within the hospital setting and robotically capturing wounds that wrap around patients’ limbs, which we call circumferential imaging. Moving forward, the product will proceed to innovate with a give attention to identification, prevention, and management of chronic wound conditions through advanced analytics solutions in all care settings.

Is there anything that you prefer to to share about Net Health?

Net Health has a powerful give attention to the specialized needs of healthcare providers. This focus enables Net Health to deliver tailored solutions which might be specifically designed to fulfill the unique needs of providers, relatively than offering a one-size-fits-all approach. This understanding of specialised clinical workflows puts us in a singular position to seamlessly gather probably the most impactful, high-quality data and develop innovative AI tools that may ultimately help us move all the industry forward.