This smart bandage could speed up healing and help soldiers on the battlefield
It regenerated tissue in mice three times faster than a normal plaster.
Scientists have created an antibiotic-laden bandage which can be activated by the tap of a button on your phone, and could heal wounds faster.
Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Harvard and MIT designed the bandage, which can also be filled with painkillers or other medication.
The hi-tech stamp-sized plaster consists of conductive fibres that are coated in a hydrogel, which would contain the antibiotic.
Medics could then use a smartphone app to wirelessly send a voltage to the bandage, heating the fibres and triggering the release of whatever the hydrogel contains.
Most importantly, what the bandage releases can be tailored to suit the ailment.
Co-author Ali Tamayol, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering at Nebraska, said: “This is the first bandage that is capable of dose-dependent drug release.”
“What we did here was come up with a strategy for building a bandage from the bottom up.”
Their design is not yet available – it still needs further testing – but until then, they are working on incorporating threads that detect glucose and pH levels so the bandage could “decide” which treatment to release.
