Australia's first smart wound bandages in the market soon
The way Australians nurse their wound could change soon as a group of Melbourne researchers revealed on Monday a smart bandage that they claimed would indicate injury condition by mere colour changes on the wound dressing.
According to lead inventor Louise van der Werff of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the new bandage would take on a different colour, specifically from red to blue, which signals the coverings response on the wound temperature.
The material scientist told AFP that "if the wound becomes infected then it typically gets warmer. It would get cooler if there were, for example, a compromised blood supply."
Van der Werff also noted that changes on the wound under the dressing will not always emit its obvious condition as she was quoted by AAP as saying that "we've created a fabric that changes colour in response to temperature, showing changes of less than 0.5 of a degree."
She added that the breakthrough product, however, will aid medical personnel "to quickly identify healing problems such as infection or interruptions to the blood supply, which are typically accompanied by a local increase or decrease in temperature."
The innovation is mostly helpful in addressing Australia's chronic wound care that requires more time for proper healing and usually affects "the elderly, obese and people with diabetes who can get wounds like leg ulcers and pressure ulcers," according to van der Werff.
At this stage, van der Werff's team has put together a fabric form of the product that hopefully will be rolled into usable bandage over the next six months that then be deployed for trial usages.
The research team is optimistic that the new bandage will make a dent on the annual $500 million health care cost in the country, three percent of which, according to the latest government data, involved chronic wound care.
Van der Werff told AAP that their work could prove significant for health problems pertaining to wound care, which she stressed "can persist for months or years, resulting in a major reduction in quality of life."