Kent Imaging | Top Wound Care Solutions Company 2022

MedTech Outlook Magazine

Kent Imaging
Striving to Improve Patient Outcomes Through Actionable Data

Pierre Lemire, CEO, Kent ImagingPierre Lemire, CEO
Effective wound management is key to faster healing, reduced amputations, and enhanced patient satisfaction scores, all of which are fundamental to the success of any wound care facility. Kent Imaging is leading a revolution in the wound care space with its flagship product, SnapshotNIR —a non-invasive, portable imaging tool that assesses microvascular tissue oxygen saturation and enables clinicians to make more informed and timely treatment decisions that can positively impact patient outcomes.

While tissue oxygenation is one of the critical aspects of wound healing, traditional perfusion and oxygenation medical imaging technologies can be challenging when providing clinicians with accurate insights on what is happening beneath the skin. Unlike them, SnapshotNIR captures the oxygenation in the wound bed and surrounding tissue using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging technology. The product leverages the reflective properties of hemoglobin and multiple wavelengths of near-infrared light to measure the amount of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin in a patient’s microvasculature.

By providing actionable data at every visit, through tissue oxygenation values and wound measurement, the device enables clinicians to document medical necessity and outcomes, track healing progression, and integrate the digital capture into the patient’s health record. Kent’s technology also provides visual cues to patients on their treatment progress, helping to improve their engagement and treatment compliance.

“Our non-invasive tissue assessment device can be used to understand the effectiveness of the treatment pathway at the point of care and triage patients earlier in the care stream,” says Pierre Lemire, CEO at Kent Imaging. “If a treatment option is ineffective, clinicians can make timely changes to the treatment pathway and expedite referral to the appropriate specialty if required.”

This was evident in the case of a patient with bilateral mastectomies for breast cancer with irradiated skin who had developed a problematic chronic wound due to the skin tissue. She was treated with topical oxygen therapy and monitored with NIRS throughout the process. The images from SnapshotNIR showed increased tissue oxygenation because of the oxygen therapy.

With wound closure, the patient was being fitted for a prosthesis. NIRS imaging was used to identify that although the wound was epithelialized, there was an area of continued inflammation within the wound, located where the prosthesis bra band would sit. With the recognition that the wound was not fully healed and would perhaps be subject to breakdown with the pressure of the bra, extra padding and protection were provided to that area to prevent tissue damage.

Another example of the extremely significant data that can be obtained with Snapshot is illustrated in a female patient with severe bilateral arterial insufficiency and a previous below-knee amputation. The progression of her arterial disease, with a breakdown of her amputation, had caused a large ischemic wound in the amputation, which led to preparations for an above-the-knee amputation. In advance of this surgery, the NIRS study documented very severe ischemia (lack of oxygen) in the below-knee wound area and in the thigh. It was determined that there was inadequate tissue oxygenation to support an amputation at that time. The SnapshotNIR data led to the scheduling of an additional vascular procedure to help establish adequate oxygenation for the patient to aid in the healing of the newly amputated limb. Had this issue not been recognized prior to surgery, it would likely have failed, leading to a very large wound and potentially a very poor outcome.

Catering to hospitals, wound clinics, and hyperbaric centers, Kent Imaging demonstrates the value of the Snapshot technology and how it should be used. SnapshotNIR is also proving to be a valuable tool in community outreach programs by organizations such as The Save a Leg, Save a Life Foundation—a non-profit driving public awareness of chronic wounds through education, advocacy, and outreach. Using Kent’s lightweight, portable and handheld device, the foundation can screen multiple patients in one community location, raise awareness about wound conditions and help at-risk patients as early in the process as possible.

  • Our non-invasive tissue assessment device can be used to understand the effectiveness of the treatment pathway at the point of care and triage patients earlier in the care stream


Kent Imaging works closely with wound care luminaries to support awareness and adoption of the technology. Once these key opinion leaders understand the benefits of SnapshotNIR , they play an important role in driving awareness and educating their medical colleagues on the benefits of the technology through webinars, research, and publications.

To help clinicians strengthen patient engagement and care, Kent strives to deliver technology that fits into the clinicians’ workflow and integrates with electronic medical records, storing patient data for record-keeping. By working in tandem with clinicians, the company fulfills its mission of leveraging technology to help improve outcomes and reduce complications in treatment. Near-infrared spectroscopy imaging delivers invaluable insights into the hands of clinicians—where ‘getting under your skin,’ is a good thing.

Top 10 Wound Care Solutions Companies – 2022

Company
Kent Imaging

Management
Pierre Lemire, CEO

Description
Kent is a leading medical technology innovator that designs, manufactures, and markets innovative and advanced diagnostic imaging solutions to aid healthcare systems nationally and internationally. To enhance surgical care and patient outcomes, SnapshotNIR provides actionable data at every visit to track and document medical necessity, therapeutic efficacy, and results.

Kent Imaging News

Kent Imaging and WoundCentrics Propel Wound Care Forward With New Partnership

WoundCentrics includes SnapshotNIR as part of a system-based approach to patient-centered wound care.
CALGARY - Kent Imaging is excited to be a part of the next steps WoundCentrics is taking to advance its patient care by incorporating SnapshotNIR as a point-of-care imaging tool. WoundCentrics’ system-based approach to each patient prioritizes the rapid acquisition of key data relevant to the patient’s assessment and treatment.
Vascular evaluation is integral to optimal decision-making in wound care. By enabling better vascular assessment at the point-of-care by including SnapshotNIR on initial and follow-up visits, the WoundCentrics team is better able to create optimal patient-centric care plans and achieve better outcomes.
“Our clinicians are trained in the multifaceted nature of wound care decision-making,” states Dr. Marcus Gitterle, MD, Chief Medical Officer of WoundCentrics. He adds, “We envision SnapshotNIR as a key component of risk reduction by having documentation and data from the device to better enable our teams’ clinical decisions.”
Not only does this partnering between Kent Imaging and WoundCentrics benefit patients, but physicians will be able to expand their research capabilities. With Kent’s eye for innovation and WoundCentrics’ mission to continue to contribute high quality research to move the industry forward, this is an exciting opportunity to elevate the standard of wound care.
WoundCentrics is a multi-state wound care provider, servicing patients through multidisciplinary teams with exceptional wound care expertise across all patient care domains including inpatient STACH, LTACH, IRF, SNF, LTC, and the home setting. Their system-based approach includes head-to-toe assessments and re-evaluations of patients through daily care from inpatient wound care providers to weekly outpatient visits in the clinic setting.
“Regardless of the patient care domain, we expect SnapshotNIR to become a key tool in our system-based patient management protocols, providing rapid, actionable, objective data to confirm the clinician’s observation and current diagnostics,” states Dr. Gitterle, he continued, “Faster delivery of this data means more efficient and effective patient care, ultimately giving time back to the patient in circumstances where time can mean saving a limb or making a decision regarding invasive surgical interventions.”
SnapshotNIR is an imaging device that uses reflectance-based technology to measure the hemoglobin and oxygen saturation of tissues 2-3 mm below the skin. Tissue oxygen saturation (StO2) is essential to wound healing and understanding a patient’s health status. Snapshot is a non-invasive, portable device that clinicians can use during bedside assessments, providing instantaneous data to support treatment planning, validate efficacy, and facilitate patient adherence to treatments like hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), a service WoundCentrics provides.
“We believe in the difference that SnapshotNIR can make in a patient’s healing progression,” says Kent’s Chief Executive Officer, Pierre Lemire, “With Snapshot in the skilled hands of WoundCentrics’ providers, we’re moving in the right direction keeping patients at the center of our cause, improving outcomes in as many patients and places as possible.”