A bursar’s reflection on ‘Pressure Mapping in Practice’ presented by Mark Bowtell from the Rehabilitation Engineering Unit, Morriston Hospital, Swansea; supported by a panel including Ali Alalshaikh from Hounslow Wheelchair Hub (seated right in photograph), Nathan Robson from AJM Healthcare and Vicky Curling from King’s College Hospital Rehabilitation Engineering Division (seated left in photograph).

Top image courtesy of PUPIS and Helen Frost Illustration

My reflection aims to summarise what I thought was a really useful and well-presented talk. I am unable to do the entire session justice, so my advice would be to watch to the recording. There is something for everyone, no matter your profession or experience. The presentation was a great refresher on the fundamentals of pressure mapping with plenty of good practical pointers and advice on why and how pressure mappers should be used within clinical practice. 

Mark led the session discussing how pressure maps work technically, why we (and our clients) might benefit from using them, how to use them and interpret them correctly, and why we sometimes need to proceed with caution.  It was nice to get back to basics with how the maps work, and what technically and clinically we need to be mindful of before even thinking about how to interpret the graphical and numerical outputs.

Some key pointers the team covered included: being mindful of your calibration; watching out for hammocking or creases in the mats; and being clear about what you are investigating and thus what outputs you are interested in.

One of the key messages was that we should always be aware of the limitations of both the pressure mapper and the situation the readings are taken in. The graphical and numerical results can absolutely add value to our investigations, but only when read appropriately in relation to the calibration and context of the appointment.

Another key point was ensuring our records are well-documented and using a report template which allows the clinical reasoning behind the investigation, along with the set-up and results, to be laid out clearly. I can foresee this being helpful for keeping results in context, and avoiding misinterpretations, particularly when looking back at results.

The session moved on to a practical section where each panel member led a group demo and discussion on a different pressure mapping system, including: BodyTrak Lite & Pro versions, TechScan and XSensr. This gave the attendees the opportunity to focus on one system and see the equipment and software in action. The only downside was that  participants could only attend one group.

It was great to see equipment that our own centres may not have, and to understand the key features different companies are developing. 

Finally, there was some discussion on the difficulties of measuring shear forces, and it was great to hear that there may be ongoing work in this area - I’m sure many of us will look forward to hearing more about that in the future.

In summary, this was an interesting and clear introduction to pressure mapping covering the technical background, the clinical reasoning behind it, some practical steps on calibration and set-up, along with a guide to important results and their interpretation. I found it was a helpful refresher, and can see it being a useful resource for providing new members of staff an overview.

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Photograph courtesy of Clinton Davin