We have a pleasure to announce that Dr. Rolf Saager and his team from Linköping University, Sweden is the winner of the IQ App Contest. Their proposal “Quantitative Spectral Imaging for Rapid Burn Wound Assessment” is an innovative approach to accessing burn wound severity with spectral imaging and has the potential to help to provide timely and appropriate treatment, reduce unnecessary surgeries, and shorten the duration of hospitalization.

Specim jury concluded that the Application Proposal presented a clear global need for more accurate and timely burn wound assessment than currently available. The methods have a solid scientific background, and the measurements were planned and conducted well. The Application Proposal was able to clearly show the advantage Specim IQ would bring to the burn wound assessment and demonstrated successful preliminary results of the Application.

According to Dr. Saager, under controlled lab conditions, the integrated Specim IQ imager performed beyond expectation in terms of the data quality and spectral analysis. The intuitive design and simple-to-use push-button made camera handling easy, which is critical for clinical integration and acceptance.

Dr. Saager says he is very grateful for the chance to participate in this contest. “It is a real challenge to find a camera that can do both quantitative imaging and spectroscopy of biological tissue well,” he states. “Given to opportunity to work with the Specim IQ, I find that it is a rare exception. I look forward to the further integration of the Specim IQ with our quantitative imaging techniques to provide a comprehensive and robust clinical tool in the wound and wound healing processes.”

Dr. Saager will receive a Specim IQ camera, including a full propack accessory for his outstanding proposal.

Congratulations also to our runner-up contestants, Planetek Italia s.r.l. with their Application for early detection of Xylella fastidiosa bacteria in olive trees, and Aivisiontech for their Pre-Diagnosis System Design for Neonates.

Our sincere thanks to all the contest participants for investing their valuable time and bringing together dozens of new application ideas for Specim IQ.