Smartphone-based total body photography of patients with mpox in remote areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Abstract
Mpox (associated with clade I monkeypox virus infection) is endemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and manifests with hundreds to thousands of total body lesions and an estimated case fatality ratio of 11% (17% in children). In October 2022, the PALM007 randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial of the safety and efficacy of tecovirimat for mpox was launched at remote sites in the DRC. Time to lesion resolution is the primary study endpoint, making frequent lesion count assessments a critical study measure. Given the typically very high burden of skin lesions, daily counting poses considerable human resource challenges to clinicians and clinical research staff.
We have established smartphone-based protocols for standardized total body photography to document mpox lesion appearance, evolution, and resolution. We will share our experience setting up, standardizing, and overseeing photodocumentation of mpox in remote trial sites, discussing technical, educational, and cultural considerations. This rich standardized dataset of clade I mpox images will enable the development of artificial intelligence (AI) tools aimed to automate mpox lesion counting in future studies. Further, new optical technologies may be advanced in response to this clinical need. Smartphone-based photodocumentation coupled with AI image analysis has become a benchmark for evaluating the performance of novel optical technologies. The PALM007 trial is supported by the Institut National de la Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) of the DRC and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the US, and funded by NCI Contract No.75N910D00024, Task Order No.75N91020F00025.
Biography
Dr. Inga Saknite is a Leading Researcher at the Biophotonics Laboratory, the University of Latvia, and an Adjoint Assistant Professor in Dermatology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, the United States. Her main research interest is advancing noninvasive imaging technologies to quantitatively assess skin for clinical impact. Among other projects, Dr. Saknite is currently leading photodocumentation of patients with mpox as part of a randomized controlled trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She has multiple years of research experience in photographic, hyperspectral, and microscopic imaging of human skin, standardized protocol and guideline development, image processing and analysis, and device and algorithm development.
Dr. Saknite received her PhD in physics from the University of Latvia in 2016. She was then awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to advance her translational research career at the Beckman Laser Institute of the University of California, Irvine. From 2017 until 2021, Dr. Saknite was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Vanderbilt Dermatology Translational Research Clinic (VDTRC.org), and was named the inaugural Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Mentor of the Year in 2021. She has received several additional awards, including the Abstract Achievement Award at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology and the best talk award at the Annual Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association Symposium.
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