Acelity announced recently that it had released a new mobile app known as iOn Healing, which facilitates communication between clinicians and Acelity representatives.
San Antonio, Texas-based Acelity deals in wound care and regenerative medicine and owns three companies dedicated to these functions. Systagenix offers health care professionals products for dressing wounds and managing severe, often hard-to-heal wounds. LifeCell offers products designed for surgeons treating wounds that resulted from injury or serious disease. Kinetic Concepts Inc. (KCI) developed the iOn Healing app and offers products for vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) therapy and skin grafting.
VAC has been shown to be an effective treatment for some types of severe wounds. A study conducted by the National University of Singapore in 2010 tested 11 different patients with diabetic foot infection or ulcers. The treatment consists of using an electric vacuum pump, which applies negative pressure evenly distributed over the surface area of the wound.
With diabetic foot wounds or ulcers, dead tissue is often a problem and has to be removed. This can lead to tendons and bones being exposed, and other complications. The end result of the treatment was that all wounds were “granulated and cleared of infection at the end of VAC therapy.” The average treatment time with VAC was 23 days and it was a less expensive form of treatment.
The iOn Healing app has four main functions:
- Connect and consult – clinicians can contact their Acelity representative about specific wound cases and possible treatment
- Order therapy – clinicians can order VAC Negative Pressure Wound Therapy
- Manage outcomes – clinicians share case information with Acelity about wound treatments.
- Product guides – clinicians can order treatment products from Acelity.
The iOn Health mobile app, available for Android and Apple devices, by itself is not an earth-shattering product; all it really does is facilitate interaction between clinicians and Acelity. It’s the treatment behind the app that is the true innovation. Thanks to VAC therapy, patients with certain types of severe wounds have a way to get effective treatment that takes less time and is less costly than other methods.
Edited by
Dominick Sorrentino
