When wounds are bandaged, they’re only being assessed when the bandage is replaced every so often. This is starting to feel like something from the olden times, as so many things in our modern world are constantly monitored and evaluated. Engineers from Harvard, Tufts, MIT, and other institutions have now banded together to create a digital bandage that is smart enough to sense the state of a wound and that can decide to deliver drugs directly to the wound as it deems necessary.
The device is made of two main parts, one of which is the bandage itself, that has pH and temperature sensors and drug releasing microbeads built-in A separate electronic module that reads what the sensors are measuring and signals for the drug to be released is connected to the bandage via a flexible cable.
“We’ve been able to take a new approach to bandages because of the emergence of flexible electronics,” said Sameer Sonkusale, Ph.D. a co-author for the study appearing in journal Small. “In fact, flexible electronics have made many wearable medical devices possible, but bandages have changed little since the beginnings of medicine. We are simply applying modern technology to an ancient art in the hopes of improving outcomes for an intractable problem.”
So far the technology has been tried in a lab, but work is underway to get the technology closer to trials on humans.
Study in journal Small: Smart Bandage for Monitoring and Treatment of Chronic Wounds…
Flashback: Smart New Bandage Delivers Drugs on Wound Exactly When Required…
Via: Tufts…