The Development of a Low-Cost, Quantitative Skin Imaging Camera

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Abstract Management of chronic wounds are a burden in today’s aging population. Expert wound care is needed to monitor and track skin health. Advances in digital photography have made it an efficient and economic option for surveillance and treatment. However, even with the best of circumstances, photographs typically provide qualitative color information that the clinician will interpret to assess physiological tissue health. Recent advancements in optical imaging methods and devices offer the ability to perform quantitative characterization of tissue structure and biochemical status. Modulated Imaging (MI), also known as Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging (SFDI) employs multispectral, patterned illumination to non-invasively obtain subsurface images of biological tissue. The broad goal of this research proposal is to build and validate a handheld system that brings MI technology to point-of-care (PoC) applications. This “PoC-MI” device will dramatically simplify system complexity and size, while utilizing primarily off-the-shelf consumer-grade components. Based on research accomplishments in Phase I, we have identified hardware and algorithms that will enable us to build a PoC-MI device at lower cost (~10x BOM reduction), lighter weight (~10x lighter), and with faster acquisition (0.1 ms, ~100-1000x faster) compared to previous revisions of the technology. In this Phase II proposal, we propose to design and fabricate a low-cost, hand-held tablet form factor, quantitative skin imaging camera with careful assessment of device performance on tissue-simulating phantoms and performance validation in well-established pre-clinical and clinical models. The results of this grant will be the first PoC MI system that provides quantitative biochemical information of the skin into a tablet form factor, enabling wide applicability in clinical management of chronic wounds.