Lenexa Medical Pressure Injury Monitoring System

Lenexa Medical set out to develop a personalised connected care solution to empower clinicians to deliver targeted, long-term pressure injury care. Despite widespread recognition that pressure injuries are mostly preventable, they remain a devastating health problem, with more than 400,000 cases in Australia every year, costing the Australian public hospital system over $9B annually. The system required the development of integrated technical textiles, electronics hardware, networking solutions, proprietary algorithms, and a highly usable interface for detecting + monitoring patient position, posture, and presence in real-time. The system was required to be compatible with existing single sized hospital bed frames, not add complexity to current workflows and integrate seamlessly with existing I.T. infrastructures. To ensure wide-spread adoption by healthcare providers the solution required exceptional accuracy, reliability, scalability, longevity and be delivered in a low cost packaged suite.

The Lenexa System is an end-to-end patient centred pressure injury prevention and monitoring solution for hospitals and care facilities, with the power to monitor patient position, posture and presence — reducing pain, suffering and healthcare costs — empowering clinicians to deliver a better standard of care. The Pressure Sensing Cover converts a traditional hospital mattress into a personalised patient monitoring system — embedded inside the waterproof 'Smart Sheet' is a custom-made patented ultra-thin fabric-based pressure sensor technology. Pressure information is sent to the cloud via the connected Databox where it is processed by a proprietary AI software. Patient information is displayed in a glance-to-understand dashboard providing personalised offloading information + timings. The dashboard provides non-subjective patient data to guide clinicians and carers, in real-time — enabling staff to make data-driven decisions to aid in prioritisation of patient turns. The solution integrates with existing operational + technical infrastructures and is scalable from a small number of beds through to multi-ward + multi-level hospital applications.

Early-stage pressure injuries are easy to miss, and the current methods of detection and patient care are subjective and often inaccurate. + Patients with a Pressure Injury are five times more likely to die in hospital. + In Australia, over 400,000 people develop Pressure Injuries annually. + The cost of care for patients developing Pressure Injuries is an additional $18K per injury. + Pressure Injuries cost the Australian public hospital system over $9B per annum. The LenexaCARE system works to put an end to the global pain and suffering of millions of patients who suffer from Pressure Injuries (PI), empower clinicians and carers to deliver a better standard of care, and minimise the financial burden that this puts on healthcare systems worldwide.

The device concept is comprised of 3 core innovative elements that make the system: Pressure Sensing Mattress Cover, Databox, AI Algorithm + Patient Management Dashboard. 1. The construction of the sensor sheet itself, Firstly, we have developed a unique all-fabric pressure-sensing sheet made from a combination of electrically conductive technical textiles. This sheet is incorporated into the mattress cover and will work with the existing hospital bed mattresses. 2. the circuitry required to read signals accurately from it, Secondly, we have developed and filed patents for an innovative method of addressing the fabric-sensor that allows us to take isolated and accurate measurements of pressure at a particular point on the sensor sheet using flexible modular electrical componentry and advanced electronics. 3. and the algorithms and software needed to interpret clinically relevant information. Lastly, we utilise this sensing information and machine learning to analyse and determine the position that the patient is lying in and how long they have been in certain positions. This allows the system to track the patient in real-time and provide important information to clinicians and carers to enable personalised pressure injury prevention.