I grew up during an era where I got iodine and a Band-Aid when I had a scrape. That was years ago. Today, I am aware that bandages can be embedded with medicine to treat wounds, but tomorrow? …Flexible, smart bandage that can monitor, treat chronic wounds and communicate progress wirelessly – Okay, you win?
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Sourced from TopNews
I recently read that a multidisciplinary research team at Harvard University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital are bringing together advances in sensors, biomaterials, tissue engineering, microsystems technology and microelectronics to create ‘smart bandages’ for wounds that require ongoing care, such as burns, diabetic ulcers and bed sores.
These new smart bandages (‘new devices’ may be the better term) will be “able to monitor all the vital signs of the healing process, such as oxygen levels and temperature, and make adjustments when needed, as well as communicate the information to health professionals who are off-site.” This work is collectively referred to as Tissue Engineered Flexible Sensors, Actuators and Electronics for Chronic Wound Management, or as EFRI-BioFLEX (where EFRI is the acronym for Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation and BioFLEX is short for flexible bioelectronics).
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Sourced from SiliconAngle
As well, a separate group of researchers from the US, South Korea and Germany has developed a liquid bandage that can map oxygen concentrations in skin wounds and burns. Damaged tissue requires a good blood supply to provide the regenerating cells with glucose and oxygen. Lack of either can lead to chronic sores, which means measuring oxygen levels is essential for wound treatment. Prior to these researchers’ work, the methods to assess wounds were either very subjective (such as by sight or smell) or required highly specialized staff or equipment. The common standard uses electrochemical analysis, which requires repeatedly inserting needle-like electrodes into the wound. Oxygen can also be measured by tracing radioactive markers with a positron emission tomograph (PET scan), but this expensive and is not widely available.
The US-Korean-German team developed a simple, non-invasive method to detect tissue oxygen levels: a liquid bandage that glows blue-green when the tissue is oxygenated and red when there is less oxygen, thus providing a colour map of oxygen concentration. A thin film on top of the bandage prevents false signals caused by atmospheric oxygen. The team is now developing apps for Google glasses and Android phones, so that users can easily create oxygen maps with the device’s camera.
It has also been suggested to incorporate pH sensors into bandages (as pH is another important factor in tissue regeneration), ultimately developing a smart bandage that can not only sense oxygen but also measure pH, detect bacteria and even release drugs.
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Sourced from TechGeek
And bandages can do more than heal! A project called Bioscope is building a bandage-like system that monitors a hospital patient’s temperature, heart rate, movement and bodily noises and transmits that data wirelessly to a computer that tracks their health. The housing for the sensor modules is 3D-printed on to the bandage, allowing nursing staff to swap sensors in and out as they see fit. The heart rate is measured through electrical activity at the skin surface, temperature through a contact thermometer and physical movement using an accelerometer. Sounds are gathered through a contact microphone: the researchers say that the sound patterns from internal organs can be used to assess the wearer’s health. Bioscope was developed by an alliance of nurses, engineers and computer scientists at the National Taiwan University. The system allows various sensors to be stacked on top of the bandage, depending on which vital signs need to be monitored. The team’s goal is to allow basic diagnoses to be made remotely using the data collected, as well as monitoring people after they leave the hospital.
I would invite you to view the linked 3:45 minute video from the BBC, which speaks to the possible: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31540159
Healing, sensing, data collection, remote monitoring and communications, even the underlying electronics technology that enable 3D printers… offers a growing array of rare metal applications. Again… RMM (Rare Metals Matter)!
Until soon… Ian
Further reading:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/flexiblesensors.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/10/smart-bandage-wound-treatment-green-light
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