Dressings that simply cover wounds may soon seem archaic. An experimental new device reportedly speeds healing by 25%, and utilizes a computer-linked camera to determine when it should zap wounds with electricity or shoot medication into them.
Known as a-Heal, the AI-enabled gadget is being developed by Prof. Marco Rolandi and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Among other components, it incorporates a miniature fluorescence camera for imaging the wound, a ring of 12 LEDs for illumination, electrodes for electrically stimulating the wound site, plus reservoirs and bioelectronic actuators for storing and delivering liquid medication. The whole thing, along with a power source, is adhered to the skin overtop of the wound.
Once the a-Heal has been set in place and activated, it proceeds to capture images of the wound once every two hours, and wirelessly transmits those images to a nearby computer. An AI agent on that computer analyzes the images, comparing the wound’s current state of healing to where it ideally should be.
If it’s determined that the wound isn’t healing fast enough, the agent prompts the a-Heal to either deliver an electric field to the wound site – thus enhancing cell migration toward wound closure – or to administer a dose of medication. In the case of a trial that was recently conducted on pigs over a 22-day period, that medication was a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor known as fluoxetine, which increases wound tissue closure by decreasing inflammation.
As a result of this combined approach, wounds on the pigs healed about 25% faster than those on a control group. It is hoped that the technology could be particularly useful in underserved regions where patients don’t have ready access to modern medical facilities.
“Our system takes all the cues from the body, and with external interventions, it optimizes the healing progress,” says Rolandi.
A paper on the research was recently published in the journal npj Biomedical Innovations.
Source: UC Santa Cruz
