DermaTrax will make a revolution in the treatment of wounds

Removing bandages for visual examination of the condition of chronic wounds by hand will soon become a thing of the past. Irish researchers from the National Tyndall Institute (Cork) have joined forces with employees of the medical equipment manufacturer Fleming Medical (Limerick, Ireland) and the Holst Center (Einhoven, the Netherlands) to develop the world's first commercially available "smart dressing material" for use in futuristic approaches to wound care.

The care of chronic wounds is a significant item of healthcare expenditure, the costs of which have been continuously increasing in recent years, especially in countries with an aging population. Smart dressing material will facilitate the care of such wounds, make it more comfortable for patients and less costly for medical institutions.

Called DermaTrax, the smart dressing material will contain sensors capable of autonomous monitoring of the condition of the material itself, as well as the patient's wounds, including temperature, humidity and acidity levels. The miniature sensor modules will be flexible and thin enough not to disturb the patient's comfort.

The collected information will be transmitted wirelessly to the nursing post. Nurses and other personnel will receive alarms in case of signs of possible infection of the wound or other violations of the healing process without the need to remove the dressing material. 

Mark Fleming, CEO of Fleming Medical, stated that "DermaTrax will revolutionize the current practice of manually removing the dressing material and visually examining the condition of the wound. This procedure requires a lot of time from the medical staff, causes unpleasant sensations in the patient and disrupts the natural healing process. This high-tech material will provide a significant reduction in medical costs by reducing the time of clinical examination and reducing the duration of hospitalization due to faster wound healing."

 

Schematic representation of DermaTrax dressing material.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Tyndall National Institute: Irish and Dutch Researchers Develop "Smart Dressing" To Transform Wound Care.