Chronic and non-healing wounds, including diabetic foot ulcers, are a growing health concern in Canada and globally, contributing to significant health impacts, rising healthcare costs, and increased demands on clinical capacity. These challenges are further amplified in rural and remote communities, where limited resources, workforce shortages, and geographic barriers can restrict access to specialised wound care. Emerging digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) offer new opportunities to improve wound assessment, standardise documentation, and expand access to specialised care. In May 2024, Brightshores Health System, one of Ontario’s largest rural, multi-site hospital networks, implemented Swift Skin and Wound, an AI-powered wound assessment and documentation tool developed by Swift Medical.

Through a multi-partner collaboration with Giishkaandago’Ikwe Health Services, the National Research Council of Canada’s Aging in Place program, and the Centre for Technology Adoption for Aging in the North at the University of Northern British Columbia, this initiative aimed to revolutionize wound care by deploying AI-enhanced tools designed to capture detailed images of wounds and provide comprehensive analyses through a digital dashboard and documentation system. Swift Skin and Wound is a smartphone-based tool that uses AI-enabled image analysis to support standardised, non-invasive wound assessment. It captures wound images and measures, including wound dimensions, tissue composition, and healing trajectories, and provides clinicians with both current and longitudinal views of a patient’s wound history through a digital dashboard.

The Moonshot Collaborative at Trillium Health Partners partnered with Brightshores Health System to evaluate the implementation of Swift Skin and Wound across its network. The evaluation examined how the technology influences patients, clinicians, and wound care outcomes, with particular attention to its feasibility, usability, and potential to support more accessible, equitable, and consistent wound care in rural and remote communities.