The latest idea from Dr. James Spahn, an Indianapolis health care entrepreneur, should help hospitals and nursing homes do
a better job of preventing severe bedsores, or pressure ulcers. That’s good, because Medicare and private health insurers
increasingly won’t pay to treat them.
Spahn has launched WoundVision, a portable imaging machine that uses heat-sensitive, infrared beams to detect activity under
a patient's skin. The machine produces digital images that can detect and predict pressure ulcers before they’re
visible to the eye.
“As pressure-ulcer incidence continues to rise and cause problems throughout all levels of the health care industry,
caregivers and health care executives are now, more than ever, feeling the need for a long-term solution,” Spahn said
in a statement. “Our imaging system provides an objective and unbiased analysis to support health care providers’
diagnoses and care plans.”
Spahn also leads Indianapolis-based EHOB Inc., which he founded in 1985. It makes Waffle overlays for mattresses, seats and
feet to prevent pressure ulcers.
WoundVision has been in development for 4-1/2 years. In 2008, the federal Medicare program stopped paying hospitals and nursing
homes for the care needed to heal a pressure ulcer that a patient develops while under their care. Private insurers such as
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. also have stopped for such follow-up care.
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