Researchers in Singapore have created a smart bandage that allows individuals to have chronic wounds monitored remotely using a smartphone app, perhaps avoiding the need for a doctor’s visit.
A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore developed a wearable sensor that can be affixed to a transparent bandage and used to assess the healing process using data such as temperature, bacteria type, pH and inflammation.
‘Traditionally, when someone has a wound or ulcer, if it’s infected, the only way to examine it is through looking at the wound itself, through visual inspection’, said Lim Chwee Teck, lead researcher at the university’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.
‘If the clinician wants to have further information then they will obtain the wound fluid and send it to the lab for further testing. So what we’re trying to do is use our smart bandage to cut the number of hours or days to just a few minutes’, he added.
The ‘VeCare’ system would allow individuals to recover more at home and only see a doctor when absolutely essential. Patients with persistent venous ulcers, or leg ulcers caused by vein circulation difficulties, are being tested using the bandage.
According to Lim, data collecting on the wounds has been successful so far and the smart bandage might possibly be utilised for other wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers.
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