Researchers from the University of Connecticut biomedical engineering department created a wirelessly controlled bandage and corresponding smartphone-sized platform that can deliver medications to a wound with independent dosing.
A UConn researcher has helped develop a new "smart bandage" that could improve clinical care. (Source: Dr. Ali Tamayol)
The smart bandage is equipped with wirelessly controlled mini needles. This technology allows care providers to program drug administration without having to visit the patient or continuously changing the bandage.
There is a range of processes that are necessary to wound healing and different medications are needed at different stages of tissue regeneration. The smart bandage delivers medicine with minimal invasiveness.
A doctor can wirelessly control the release of multiple drugs through tiny needles. The needles can penetrate into deep layers of a wound bed with minimal pain and inflammation. This is more effective for wound closure and encouraging hair growth compared to topical administration of drug in a minimally invasive way.
The team tested the bandage first on cells and then on diabetic mice with a full-thickness skin injury. The mice showed signs of complete healing and lack of scar formation with the smart bandage. This proved the bandages’ ability to significantly improve the rate and quality of wound healing in diabetic animals.
A paper on this technology was published in Advanced Functional Materials.
