Smart bandage has potential to heal wounds and injuries

The bandage, developed by researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Harvard Medical School and MIT, can be individually loaded with antibiotics, tissue-regenerating growth factors, painkillers or other medications.

A postage stamp-sized microcontroller, which could be activated by a smartphone or other wireless device, sends small amounts of voltage through a chosen fibre. That voltage heats the fibre and its hydrogel, releasing the medication contained within it.

A single bandage could reportedly accommodate multiple medications tailored to a specific type of wound, the researchers said, while offering the ability to precisely control the dose and delivery schedule of those medications. That combination of customisation and control could substantially improve or accelerate the healing process, said Ali Tamayo, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering at Nebraska.

"This is the first bandage that is capable of dose-dependent drug release," Tamayol said in a statement. "You can release multiple drugs with different release profiles. That's a big advantage in comparison with other systems. What we did here was come up with a strategy for building a bandage from the bottom up.