Graphical Data Acquisition

BurnCase 3D offers the possibility to document all types of burn injuries on an appropriate 3D body model of the patient with an accuracy of one cm². Different burn degrees are visualized by different colors and patterns. BurnCase 3D calculates the affected surface areas with a world-wide unique accuracy. Thereby, the 3D model can be rotated, translated and zoomed by standard input devices. Additionally, the user is supported during the documentation process by useful tools like the freehand function, the look-at function and a deselection mode in order to provide a significant work reduction in comparison to common paper documentation effort. The complete data set is stored in a central database and is available from any workstation within the institution network. The acquired injury areas are grouped automatically by degree and body region in order to allow fast and simply post processing of the patient's state. In addition to burn degrees BurnCase 3D allows the acquisition of corrosions, amputations and healing states of injuries. The measurement function provides the possibility of measuring surface areas of transplantable skin on healthy skin regions of the patient.

Digital Picture Archive

In order to complete professional burn documentation BurnCase 3D offers an archive of digital images. Images can be assigned to regions on the 3D model. The special picture archive mode allows fast an intuitive retrieval of imported images by 3D landmarks on the model. Every image can be superimposed onto the 3D model in order to allow objective verification of documented burn regions. Of course, images can be searched by common criteria like name, date, or assigned body region or burn degree. BurnCase 3D additionally allows to save a 3D model position to every digital picture so it is possible to bring the model into the position that the patient has on the picture and compare the 3D model directly via superimposing to the picture of the real patient.

Additional Data Acquisition

The patient-related dataset is compatible to standard hospital information system interfaces. In addition to graphical burn wound information BurnCase 3D provides an interface for the acquisition of textual patient- and burn case-related data. The dataset is based on international standards like HL7 and NTRACS and allows a complete documentation of the whole treatment history. Of course, there is the possibility to adapt this dataset to local needs, although BurnCase 3D tries to establish a world-wide standard for burn data acquisition containing information on:

• Cause of accident
• First aid
• Admission
• Progress
• Outcome
• Complications

Medical Encoding and Reporting

BurnCase 3D offers complete medical encoding of patient states in ICD10 diagnostics code. All information from the 3D model as well as from the acquired additional data is taken into account for the generation of ICD codes. An integrated ICD10 Browsers allows for further refinement and addition of ICD codes. Furthermore, BurnCase 3D offers the following automatically generated reports for print-out:

• Patient Information
• Additonal Burn-related Data
• ICD10 Journal
• ABSI
• Graphical Patient State
• Affected Body Regions
• Acquired Burn Degrees
• Lund&Browder Charts

Operating System

• MS Windows 2000
• MS Windows XP
• MS Windows VISTA
• MS Windows 7

Hardware

• Intel Pentium 4 or better
• 3D Accelerated VGA Adapter (OpenGL support)
• Min. 512 MB RAM
• Min. 400 MB Hard disk

Database

Based on the developed prototype a first version of a stable and fully functional software system was created named BurnCase CORE. This system covers the whole diagnostic field of burn injuries reaching from documentation of burned areas, realtime calculation of 3D areas, encoding into diagnostic standard codes (ICD), and graphical reporting (Lund&Browder charts, ...) to a complete set of additional clinical data for statistical analysis.

The system stores the graphical representation of the patient as well as calculated areas and scores in an underlying relational database. Thus, it is easily possible to access this data via the SQL interface with third party programs for research and further work.

The 3-dimensional model is adapted to the real patient in height and weight allowing to work on a realistic virtual patient. In order to take the pysical constitution of a patient into account, several different base models for pycnic, leptosom and athletic body shapes are integrated in BurnCase CORE. This adaptation is done for every patient automatically.

[ view video ]

In order to help the user to transfer injured areas from photos onto the model, BurnCase CORE allows blending photos over the 3D model. Thus, the user only has to rotate the model in the correct position and can then transfer the areas by simply marking the border of the wound on the photo.

The system is able to generate a bunch of standard reports, which are highliy flexible and can be refined and expanded easily for future needs.

[ view video ]

The graphical interface of BurnCase CORE is based on OpenGL technology. The models consist of triangle meshes with a resolution of one cm², which means over 100.000 polygons per model. BurnCase offeres a model library consisting of 8 models representing different body shapes, sex and age. The OpenGL technologoy is used to render these models on the screen including shading, light effects, stipples and material colors. The selection algorithm is based on OpenGL too, allowing for every single polygon to be assigned a burn degree, color and stipple.

See www.opengl.org for further information.

For further information on this software please send us an email.