Gradiant leads ICAREWOUNDS, a European alliance to advance a comprehensive model of care for patients with chronic wounds

The three-year research will facilitate the work of European healthcare professionals in the management of chronic wounds

Promoted through a consortium led by Gradiant and made up of six other entities, it has a funding of €1.5M and is co-funded by the European Commission with the support of national agencies such as the Instituto de Salud Carlos III

Gradiant and the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Galicia Sur (IISGS), together with a consortium of six other entities, is pleased to launch ICAREWOUNDS, a European alliance to promote a comprehensive model of care for patients with chronic wounds. The aim of this AI-based research – led by Gradiant and starting this May for three years – is to facilitate the work of healthcare professionals.

ICAREWOUNDS will optimise processes, make it easier for healthcare staff to decide on the best treatment for each situation, reduce healing times and reduce the cost of dressings and other healthcare resources. It will also facilitate personalisation of care, provide clinicians with tools to optimise care, enable communication and collaboration between care levels and seamless care delivery, helping prevent any adverse events.

Analysis of chronic wounds with AI

Luis Pérez Freire, Executive Director of Gradiant, points out that “with the activation of this project we want to respond to the need to homogenise and generalise treatments in accordance with international clinical guidelines and to set ourselves the challenge of developing tools that are feasible for their implementation in real healthcare systems, allowing us to maximise usability by healthcare professionals. To do this, we will start with an initial analysis of the processes currently used in different European hospitals for the treatment of chronic wounds and integrate AI technologies for the analysis of the wounds.

For his part, José Manuel Rosendo, a researcher with the Quality of Life and Health Economics Research Group (QoLE) of the Health Research Institute Galicia Sur and supervisor of the Wound and Processes and Care Consultancy Unit of the Pontevedra Health Area will lead the multicentre clinical study to be carried out in three countries (Ireland, Poland and Spain). Together with him, the nurses Ana García Fernández and José Antonio Esperón Güímil (member of the steering committee of the National Group for the Study and Advice on Pressure Ulcers and Chronic Wounds-GNEAUPP), also researchers of the “QoLE” Group. The IISGS will also coordinate the involvement of different actors and stakeholders that help the development of the project.

1.5 million and co-funded by the European Commission, with the support of national agencies such as the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, ICAREWOUNDS will be developed in partnership with the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Galicia Sur (Spain), CyberEthics Lab (Italy), Medical University of Lodz (Poland), University College Dublin (Ireland), Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT (Finland) and Sigoria Security Solutions Ltd (Poland).

ICAREWOUNDS project has received funding from the European Commission, ISCIII, NCBR, HRB, AKA and MUR  under the framework the co-fund partnership of Transforming Health and Care Systems, THCS, (GA N° 101095654 of the EU Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme.

Award nº AC23_2/00048 and nº AC23_2/00031 by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) through AES 2023 and within the THCS Partnership.