We’ve got smartphones, smartwatches and smart homes. Get ready for smart bandages, too.
Scientists say smart bandages will one day be available at a pharmacy near you. But don’t expect to deploy these technological wonders when nicking yourself shaving or after cutting a finger on a sharp kitchen knife.
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology are experimenting with a smart bandage to be used for people with chronic wounds. These are the difficult-to-heal cuts and burns that are often debilitating.
An example is a person with diabetes, a disease that can slow the healing process, leaving wounds with the potential of becoming infected.
Festering wounds are a major drain on health care, with estimated annual costs of $25 billion in the United States alone.
But a Caltech medical engineer has developed a bandage made of a flexible polymer with electronics and medication embedded in it. The electronics can monitor wound temperature for infection or inflammation, sending an alert to a patient’s computer or smartphone. It can send a message via Wi-Fi to a doctor.
At the same time, a bandage sensor can release a small dose of an antibiotic or other medication. Meanwhile, an electrical field is applied to the wound to stimulate tissue growth.
More research is needed, scientists say, and it must be tested on humans.
Caltech isn’t alone in the development of these scientific marvels. University of Arizona researchers, for example, are also working on prototypes.
And don’t worry. There will probably always be a place in our medicine cabinet for not-so-smart bandages that handle routine cuts and scrapes.