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A NATO-funded science project on wound healing brings to life research on dressings that “listen” to the patient.
Follow the healing of a skin wound without having it under your eyes or, better yet, predict its evolution over time or even accelerate this healing: these are the objectives of the work directed by Dr. Carlo Iorio at the ULB. The scientist leads the Rawints (RApid Skin Wound healing by INtegrated Tissue engineering and Sensing) scientific research project. A project that comes to know a new twist in the last few days.
“A member of medical staff no longer has to remove the dressing to view the wound.”
“With Rawints it’s about developing intelligent dressings, accelerating skin healing,” explains Carlo Iorio. After three years of work (and 600,000 euros of research budget funded by NATO through his “Science for Peace and Security” Program), the international team he led was able to demonstrate various technologies in this context.
“To evaluate the evolution of an open wound, the nursing staff has various indices: temperature, chemical signals, acidity (pH) of the wound”, specifies the researcher of the Department of Chemistry-Physics of the ULB. “In collaboration with Japanese, Spanish and Italian colleagues, the system we have developed also provides this type of information, without requiring a medical staff member to remove the dressing to view the wound“.
Ultimately, thanks to an associated intelligence system, this connected dressing will also make it possible to predict the evolution of the wound state.
This is one of his main interests. “Knowing whether or not the situation will get worse allows for better care either free up time for medical personnel, so that he can focus his work on patients who require more attention ”, explains Carlo Iorio.
A biocompatible and connected membrane
The detector takes the form of a flexible biocompatible membrane. It measures the evolution of the temperature and pH of the wound. A liquid crystal display system inform doctors immediately about the condition of the wound. “If you add stem cells to it, you can drastically reduce healing times“specifies a doctoral student on the team. For some types of injuries, healing can therefore range from one month to ten days.
This scientific project is being extended to the European Space Agency. As part of the “WHISKEY – Space Wound Healing: Key Challenges towards Intelligent and Enabling Sensing Platforms” project, tests were carried out during parabolic flights. This is to verify the file behavior of this type of dressing in conditions of microgravity. It could really be useful for long-term missions in Earth’s orbit, to the Moon or while traveling to Mars, for example.
“In the United States, one of the goals of the US Department of Defense is to equip its soldiers with this type of connected detectors by 2035. We have an advantage here.”
In mid-November, a new three-year research project, namely this time “listening” to the patients, has just received the green light from NATO. With a budget of half a million euros, SP4Life (“Smart patch for life support system”) aims this time to couple a graphene microphone in the dressings applied to the chest of patients, or soldiers in operation, even astronauts on mission.
By listening to their breathing and once again using artificial intelligence to decode these signals in real time, it comes track the patient’s progress as soon as possible or the state of stress of soldiers and astronauts. This is to prevent possible errors or accidents. “When breathing changes, it can have effects on brain oxygenation, and therefore on decisions to be made,” emphasizes Dr. Iorio. “In the United States, one of the goals of the US Department of Defense is to equip its soldiers with this type of linked detector by 2035. Here we are one step ahead. “
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