Pressure injuries are a form of tissue damage caused by variations in pressure, shearing forces, friction, and moisture. They occur most often on the back of the head, sacrum, ischium, and heels. Risk factors for hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) include advanced age, decreased perfusion, immobility, malnourishment, and serious illness. Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to HAPIs. Further, HAPIs are associated with poor short-term outcomes, such as longer hospital stay, higher mortality rate, and greater cost burden. Therefore, prevention of HAPIs is a federal research priority in the United States. Assessing a patient’s risk for HAPI development is paramount for HAPI prevention and treatment, but current risk assessment and prevention methods are limited. For example, the Braden Scale, a well-known HAPI risk assessment tool, relies on the subjective judgment of a clinician and is of questionable clinical utility.

To address current limitations in HAPI risk assessment and prevention,...

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