Is there a role for infrared thermography in the early detection of surgical wound complications?

Charmaine Childs is Professor of Clinical Science in the Health Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University. Charmaine leads the Applied Imaging in Health and Disease research programme. Her strategic research objective is research translation; developing and bringing new technology to the bedside/clinic to deliver tangible benefits for patients.
Charmaine has held senior research and academic positions in the United Kingdom (Medical Research Council, UK from 1991-2000), the School of Medicine University of Manchester, UK from 2000-2009 followed by work overseas at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (2009-2013). Her cross-disciplinary work with scientists, engineers, computer scientists, architects and clinicians has contributed to a rich experience with international collaborations.

With over 120 peer reviewed publications, work is available in scientific/clinical journals and book chapters. https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/charmaine-childs. In 2020 Charmaine was invited to the role of Editor of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) publication: Birth-related Wounds https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/full/10.12968/jowc.2020.29.Sup11a.S1
More recently, Charmaine’s work is focused on the impact of using non-invasive imaging biomarkers, particularly long wave infrared thermography (LWIRT) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) for early disease prognosis. With recent Medical Research Council funding, Charmaine will be exploring dynamic infrared thermography in vascular disease.
Charmaine’s work in surgical site infection imaging is recognised internationally, winning four international awards.

Karen is Professor and Director for the Institute of Skin Integrity and Infection Prevention, University of Huddersfield, Visiting Professor, Queensland University of Technology and the Royal college of Surgeons, Dublin; previous academic editor for Wounds UK. She is elected chair of the International Wound Infection Institute and the International Skin Tears Advisory Panel (Europe). Her clinical background is in orthopaedics and tissue viability. She has over 30 years’ experience in both clinical practice and in academia. She is widely published (in excess of 140 papers) and has edited 2 text books.

Barbara is Head of Pharmacy at the University of Huddersfield. She was appointed as Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Huddersfield in 2010. Following her first degree in Pharmacy at Queen’s University, Belfast, she registered as a pharmacist in 1990 and practised full-time in community pharmacy until joining Aston University in Birmingham in 1992 to undertake a Ph.D. Her PhD research project at Aston was in the pharmaceutics and drug delivery field, focusing on microencapsulation for delivery of biopharmaceuticals.

Following completion of her PhD studies in 1995, she was employed in various posts at Aston University, including lecturer and senior lecturer and was Director of the M.Pharm. programme prior to moving to the University of Huddersfield in 2010 as Professor of Pharmaceutics. During this time, she also became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and supervised projects on the application of e-learning technologies in Pharmacy. She was also a Medici Fellow, specialising in driving forward innovation within the university sector and hold several patents in the pharmaceutical area. She has supervised over 20 Ph.D. students and on-going research programmes focus on chrontherapeutic delivery and delivery of antimicrobials, novel excipients for drug delivery, the mechanical properties of pharmaceuticals and excipients and the development of chewing gum delivery systems.

She has a number of successful collaborations with other universities, NHS and pharmaceutical industry leading to publications and development of new products.