‘Smart’ wearable sensor developed to track healing

Published in the journal ACS Sensors, the new study explores using a ‘smart bandage’ with electroanalytical methods of monitoring certain biomarkers during the healing process, all without the need for bandage removal.

To monitor healing in chronic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers or pressure ulcers, medical professionals usually need to remove the bandages from a wound. This damages recovering tissue, can be painful for patients, and requires hospital visits to avoid further infections. If a wound requires further inspection, other methods such as biopsies, surface swabs or testing for pathogens can be invasive, costly and sometimes ineffective.

Leader of the Russia-US team, Prof. Keith Stevenson, said that their methods could be particularly promising for clinical application due to their simplicity, sensitivity and durability.

“Earlier stages of our research involved characterising the sensor performance and demonstrating the sensitive and selective multianalyte detection in complex biofluid simulants that closely mimic real biological environments,” he explained.