Smart patch will choose the treatment

American scientists have created a patch with built-in sensors, which in real time will be able to track information about the wound and select the desired treatment.
American scientists have created a patch with built-in sensors, which in real time will be able to track information about the wound and select the desired treatment.
Engineers from tufts University (USA) have developed a prototype of a "smart" patch. Focusing on the acidity of the wound and its temperature, the new device will be able to pick up the right amount of medication. The development will be needed primarily for patients suffering from chronic skin lesions (for example, diabetes, long-term healing burns, and so on).

The device, created by scientists, contains sensors of temperature and acidity, as well as a small processor that processes the data of these sensors. Also on the smart patch, engineers have placed tiny containers with drugs. If necessary, these containers are destroyed by temperature, and the drug gets to the desired area of the wound.

In ordinary wounds, the pH is usually less than 6.5, and if the wound gets an infection, this figure increases significantly. The temperature of the wound and around it shows what the level of inflammation is. By combining these two parameters, it is possible to calculate when and how much drug should be delivered to the wound. While the development is at the prototype stage, in the near future the developers plan to begin preclinical research.
Innovative patches are invented systematically: there is already a patch that can cure a "broken heart", a patch for migraine and a patch that will help to avoid the accumulation of excess weight.