Role of the Healico© Wound Care Smartphone Application in Preventing a Foot Amputation in a 65-Year-Old Patient with Diabetes.

BACKGROUND Healico© is an innovative smartphone application designed to assist healthcare professionals in managing wounds in their daily practice. The application records all clinical information of the wound, facilitating its monitoring, and may lead to the selection of the best treatment for the patient. In addition, the application allows secure data sharing among healthcare professionals. CASE REPORT We report the successful use of Healico© in aiding the avoidance of foot amputation in a 65-year-old patient with diabetes. The patient had a diabetic foot ulcer, the main cause of lower limb amputation in Spain. Amputations negatively impact the quality of life of patients and are an enormous economic burden. The treatment of diabetic foot ulcers requires a multidisciplinary approach with good coordination between healthcare professionals from different fields and between different levels of care (primary care centers, sociosanitary centers, and hospitals). Through the use of Healico©, the patient with severe clinical signs of infection was referred urgently from primary care to the referral hospital and was quickly treated with antibiotics and underwent surgery. As a result, the infection was successfully delimited and excision of the foot was prevented. CONCLUSIONS Healico© promoted rapid communication between the primary care center and hospital, enabling urgent referral of the patient to a specialist. This clinical case reports the value that a digital application can bring to the healthcare sector and, in particular, the value of Healico© implementation in the daily practice of healthcare professionals to optimize the management of wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers.