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April 28, 2007. A trainee doctor was bandaging a diabetic foot wound of a lady. Let’s call her Fiona. Fiona was a veteran of the diabetic clinic. Her file was 2 inches thick, and she knew about dressing a wound better than most of the trainee doctors. She was also very frustrated as the wound just would not heal! And while her diabetes was well controlled, she was there every month, with the same wound that would almost heal and go bad again.

At that time, the doctor often wondered what it would be like to have a dressing that could talk to him. If the dressing could tell him the condition of the wound without even removing it. If the dressing could deliver a dose of medicine without him having to disturb the delicate granulation tissue that forms the base of a healing wound.

10 years later, this hope is coming to life. A new ‘smart bandage’ is in making, and this will revolutionise the way wounds are treated today!

Smart bandage

Till the start of this century, doctors were also philosophers. Some were physicists, some chemists. This multidisciplinary background helped them to overcome many diseases, leading to many discoveries. As medicine specialised, doctors became more focussed on treating, and thus lost the subtle touch with the development part of new therapies. Fast forward a few decades, Universities are promoting multidisciplinary teams again to tackle the problems of delivering healthcare.

A similar team from Tufts University, USA, has developed a prototype smart bandage. This bandage can sense the condition of the wound and deliver a dose of medicine when needed. This is a revolution in two aspects.

Firstly, knowing the condition of the wound without opening a bandage is a huge deal. Many times, the patient is sent home with a bandage. Due to improper care, the wound may not heal well, or even become infected. This is often discovered too late, during a routine visit to the doctor. So, if a patient gets an alert on his phone to see a doctor, an infection can be tackled earlier.

And secondly, the current dose delivery systems like patches deliver a constant dose. They are not customised to deliver a dose when needed. So, delivery of medicine when required or as doctors call it, SOS application, will improve wound healing.

How does a smart bandage work?

The smart bandage takes into account the pH and the temperature of the wound. A normally healing would have a pH between 5.5 and 6.5, whereas an infected wound may have pH well above 6.5. The temperature is raised in an infected wound, a marker of inflammation.

The team lead by Sameer Sonkusale, PhD professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts University has developed a smart system of reusable electronic components integrated into the bandage. The patch senses the pH, temperature, and tissue oxygenation, and sends the data to a device with Bluetooth. This will help in the collection of data and delivery of medicine.

The bandage has two parts. A reusable electronic module that connects to a Bluetooth device and a disposable bilayer patch with sensors and therapeutics. The two are attached by a detachable flex cable that allows a change of patch. The patch has sensors that sense the pH and temperature and sends the signal to the electronic module. The patch also has a hydrogel layer that holds the medicine in place. So, a signal from the electronic module can release the drug to the wound by using heat.

3D printing and reusable parts make the bandage cheaper to use, and the thinness of the patch makes it practical for complex wounds. This system has been tested in vitro-human trials are still not performed. However, this is a hope for those like Fiona who need some smart tech to ease their pain.

We are indeed fortunate to live in such exciting times!

Also, read AR and VR are the new tools in your doctor’s bag

Medicine has always been an obscure discipline to practise. A doctor has been looking at with awe and respect, and until quite recently, was often an unapproachable person. However, this is changing rapidly. He is a service provider and you, the patient, are a consumer, and thus protected by the prevailing consumer laws.

Being good at medicine is not good enough

160 years ago, in 1858, Henry Gray published Gray’s Anatomy – the bible for every doctor. Back then, body snatchers were a prime source of obtaining cadavers for dissections. About 70 years later, the first antibiotic was discovered in the form of penicillin. Fast forward another 40 years, and people were still dying from simple infections. Today, these things would sound so alien! No antibiotics, illegally obtained bodies for dissection, people dying from simple infection rather than grave, life-threatening diseases. Medicine has come a long way since the time of Mr Gray (Surgeons use a Mr instead of Dr in the UK).

Today, a doctor is not expected to do his job, he has to be in a sensitive manner, warranted by the profession. He needs to have proper bedside manners in most of the medical schools. However, in the age of technology, this is not enough!

HealthTech in a new form

Today, medical schools have started recruiting the importance of telemedicine in the healthcare ecosystem. So, a doctor needs correct ‘webside’ manners in addition to having proper bedside manners. Teleconsultation is one solution for reaching out to patients. It is remotely, who does not have to go to a doctor. It is, therefore, a solution to the problem of skilled manpower in remote primary care facilities.

Augmented Reality is being tried out in a few medical schools to train doctors and nurses so that they are sufficiently prepared to attend patients. Similarly, VR environment helps them in preparing and practising sensitive surgeries without actually touching a patient.

What could be the future of healthTech in Medicine

Medical advances on the fronts of new drug discoveries have slowed down. Instead, pharmaceuticals are being used to improve their chances. The next big thing is biologicals and personalized medicine.

However, when it comes to the doctor’s clinic, a lot of things are changing as well. He has the tools to capture the patient’s data without having to spend on his computer. With IoT devices and integrated software, things are becoming easier for doctors. That said, there is still a huge scope for technology in his clinic.

Booking appointments, accessing patient’s history on arrival, easy accessing diagnostics and post-visit followup are not seamless in every hospital. Many patients do not spend more than 15 minutes talking to a doctor and may forget something. This might seem trivial to the patient, like a pain in the abdomen a few days back. However, there may be some implications for the course of treatment. Right now, a patient can not talk to the doctor again unless he makes an appointment.

This is what we are working on changing.

Aimedis in medicine

At Aimedis, we believe that a patient should have access to healthcare all the time. So, we provide an option to consult a doctor from the comfort of your own home. What more, so we provide a prescription facility *. If you are not sure about the diagnosis your own doctor gave, you can seek a second opinion using our portal. And when compared to the doctor visits, this ends up being quite cheap! We are not dissuading you from going to a doctor. We want to bring the doctor to you so that your recovery starts immediately.

So, read Is your doctor overworked? There might be a solution to this