Software

The original LUTM system was designed and developed by Simon Dodds and Wound Care Logistics has the right to market and sell LUTM along with service improvement training that ensures long-term benefit.

• Shared electronic patient record
• Fast and accurate assessment of wound size
• Predicts likely time to healing
• Allows advice and best practice to be communicated and shared

Increasing demand on the Good Hope Hospital Leg Ulcer Clinic led Simon Dodds to create the leg ulcer telemedicine (LUTM) system.

The result was an electronic patient record that could be shared seamlessly over the NHS net linking community and secondary care teams. LUTM also allowed accurate measurement of wounds from digital photographs.

This concept of seamless communication across the fragmented healthcare system was tested in the Good Hope Hospital Leg Ulcer Telemedicine Study. (link here) The study successfully illustrated that improved communication and accurate assessment led to benefits for patients (26% reduction in healing time), community nurses (significant saving of time), and commissioners (reduced cost to heal an ulcer).

When the study finished the telemedicine system ad to be turned off.
There was uproar amongst the Community Nurses who had embraced this new method and did not wish to revert to former methods. Ongoing funding was negotiated and LUTM has been operating successfully in North Birmingham ever since.

The adoption of LUTM in other areas has grown since 2004 and there are now many locations benefiting from its use.

In 2004-5 Simon Dodds and his Team won two NHS Innovation Awards for their work on Telemedicine and Wound Care in North Birmingham.