Smart Bandage Visualizing Wound’s Status

(Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, July 04, 2017)

The idea of being able to see through a wound dressing gave rise to the project Flusitex, which is being funded by the Swiss initiative Nano-Tera. Researchers from Empa teamed up with ETH Zurich, Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM) and University Hospital Zurich to develop a high-tech system that is supposed to supply the nursing staff with relevant data about the condition of a wound. At the moment, color changes caused by pH variation can be visualized with simple UV lamps. One day, it might even be possible to read the signals with the aid of a smartphone camera. This would enable nursing staff and doctors to easily and conveniently read the wound status, even without a UV lamp.