Understanding Racial Disparities in Wound Imaging

According to the FDA, “Medical imaging refers to several different technologies that are used to view the human body in order to diagnose, monitor, or treat medical conditions. Each type of technology gives different information about the area of the body being studied or treated, related to possible disease, injury, or the effectiveness of medical treatment.”¹

In wound care, clinicians use standards of care, consensus guidelines, and experience to assess and document wounds. Despite the use of available measurement tools and the best efforts of wound care professionals, wound assessment can prove subjective, even in documentation. To combat this subjectivity, clinicians may find themselves adopting various forms of medical imaging technology to track wound healing.² Unfortunately, experts have identified obstacles to fully adopting digital imaging. 

In general medical literature alone, it has been reported that as little as 5% of photos included in the literature feature patients with darker skin tones.³ Disparities across vulnerable populations in wound care, in addition to those with varying degrees of pigmented skin, often face greater risk of assessment errors due to misunderstandings of the nuances of the digital imaging technology available.³

In this interview with Dr. Johnson, he describes the use of imaging technology in wound care and how clinicians should be aware of the way skin pigmentation may be evaluated differently/incorrectly with these systems. View the interview on WoundSource here. 

References

1.    Medical Imaging. FDA. Published August 28, 2018. Accessed February 1, 2023. https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/radiation-emitting-products-and-procedures/medical-imaging

2.    Queen D, Harding KG. Importance of imaging to wound care practice. Inter Wound J. Published January 30, 2023;20(2):235-237. https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.14082

3.    Johnson J, Anderson C, Kelso M, Johnson A. Breaking Biases With Wound Imaging: Racial Disparities and Vulnerable Population Quality of Care. Presented at: SAWC Fall; October 14-16, 2022. Las Vegas, NV. https://moleculight.com/breaking-biases-with-wound-imaging/ Accessed February 1, 2023.