Since the beginning of the world, human beings have made incredible findings in the field of medicine in a bid to aid the improvement of the overall health of people. This is because they realized early on that the lack of good health can limit their maximum performance in every life sphere.
In modern times, more discoveries have been made in the field of medicine around the world as doctors and researchers take it upon themselves to bring better solutions to the ailments human beings suffer in their bodies.
From the creation of X-rays by Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895, to the discovery of heart transplant by Christiaan Barnard in 1967 and even to the coming of Prosthetics and Implants, the world has indeed witnessed an awesome and utterly welcome rise of developmental findings and we are all the more grateful for them.
Just recently, another discovery has been made. This time, it is about the bandage.
A Bandage That Can Monitor Wounds
It has been revealed that a futuristic smart bandage which is indeed very capable of monitoring a wound and even proceeding to deliver periodic drug treatments to the injured flesh, has been developed. Can you believe this? Well, believe it; it is for real!
This futuristic bandage was reportedly developed by a team of researchers who carried out a well-planned study at Tufts University, USA and it is set to make an impact on the world.
Now, it must be noted that this smart bandage is still only just a prototype. However, it is believed that the new and most welcome work of medical technology, can one day, help in transforming medical treatment and even enable doctors to monitor patients condition more closely while treating their injury.
The details about the smart bandage prototype were provided in a recent paper in the journal ‘Small’.
Talking with Digital Trends about the new discovery, Sameer Sonkusale, an engineering professor at Tufts University who led the project, said the smart bandage is created to sense how the wound is healing and then proceed to administer drugs in real time.
In his words: “What we have demonstrated is a flexible smart bandage that has your drug cocktail in it.
“It senses how the wound is healing and delivers the drug in real time in appropriate quantity to make it heal faster.” sic: Digital Trends
How The Smart Bandage Works
According to Sonkusale, the smart bandage which was developed by himself and, of course, his team has been designed in a way that will enable it to use sensors to detect subtle biomarkers which signal wound healing in the body. The man also revealed that after this initial detection, a microprocessor will then proceed to read all the data captured by the sensors and then promptly communicate with a mobile device which has been provided to interface with it.
After this, the microprocessor will then conduct the smart bandage to release appropriate medication to the injury if the move is considered proper.
Talking about this procedure, Sonkusale explained that the microprocessor can sense whether or not the wound is in a proper shape to recover.
In his words: “It can sense whether it is getting enough oxygen. Is it at the right pH level, which is a sign of abnormal healing? What is the temperature near the wound? Is there any inflammation? All of this info is communicated to a central processor where the doctor has programmed drug release such as an antibiotic, or growth factor, to improve healing. This closed loop ‘sense-then-respond’ bandage is probably the first of its kind.” sic: Digital Trends