Surface 3D
In burn medicine, the percentage of burned body surface area in relation to the total body surface area of patients is a crucial parameter to ensure adequate treatment and therapy. However, estimating the total body surface area is a significant challenge due to individual body size and proportions. Inaccurate assessments of the extent of burns can lead to suboptimal medical decisions with significant consequences for patients. Surface 3D enables precise calculation of burn size, ensuring patient safety and supporting medical professionals in their daily clinical practice.
In close collaboration with numerous medical partners, the Medical Informatics Research Department of RISC Software GmbH has been developing objective 3D methods to optimize burn treatment and documentation for about 20 years. One of the central results of this research is Surface 3D – an interactive, web-based tool for the highly precise annotation of burn wounds on patient-specific 3D body surface models. In addition to automatically determining the degree of burns and calculating wound size in real-time, Surface 3D allows comprehensive documentation of wound healing over time.
Patient-Specific 3D Models
In Surface 3D, 3D base models from a model collection can be adjusted to patient-specific parameters such as gender, weight, or height. These models enable continuous documentation of the burn wound.
Automatic Pose Adjustment
To enable efficient use in clinical practice, an automated pose adjustment of the model has been implemented. The position and posture of the joints are extracted from a single RGB image using machine learning algorithms. The precise adjustment of pose and shape of the 3D model allows the transfer of wound surfaces with minimal effort and high accuracy.
Precise Transfer of Wound Surfaces
Surface 3D includes simple methods for transferring the wound to the virtual patient avatar. These methods allow precise delineation of burns even in the smallest regions. Thus, any changes over time can be accurately and clearly represented.
Comprehensive Documentation
Surface 3D offers the ability to save information about wounds and dressings, as well as clinical findings, documents, or photos directly on the corresponding body or wound positions of the 3D patient model through drag-and-drop. This comprehensive documentation ensures a high traceability of wound healing over time.
Platform Independence
Surface 3D is a web-based application using modern web technologies such as Angular and three.js, ensuring platform-independent use. The software runs on Android, iOS, Windows, Linux macOS, and directly in a web browser without requiring installation. It offers different user interfaces depending on the use case and can be easily adapted for other applications due to its modular structure.
Project Details
- Project Short Title: Surface 3D
- Project Long Title: Surface 3D
- Funding Call: Internal research project of the Medical Informatics Research Department of RISC Software GmbH
Contact person
Project management
Dr. Michael Giretzlehner
Head of Research Unit Medical Informatics