SBIR Phase I: On-demand light-switchable adhesives

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I期项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是降低由传统医用粘合剂敷料引起的医用粘合剂相关皮肤损伤（MARSI）的患病率。MARSI发生在所有年龄组和所有医疗机构的所有患者中的7%，仅在美国每年就造成约150万起伤害。据估计，2012年，由于MARSI导致患者满意度评分较低，约有8.5亿美元的医院付款被扣留。胶带引起的皮肤损伤的平均治疗成本为88.50美元，是一卷医用胶带平均成本的125倍。该项目旨在创建光开关粘合剂敷料，这将显着降低MARSI，通过护士效率降低整体医疗成本，加速愈合，提高患者的生活质量，并减少阿片类止痛药的使用。其他对光开关粘合剂感兴趣的行业包括塑料瓶回收、工业传感器和生产力传感器解决方案以及柔性电子制造。这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目提出了一种新型粘合剂技术平台，通过光开关可以将粘合剂在应用和使用过程中的特性与寿命终止/去除特性分离。该项目与其他研究努力截然不同，这些研究努力创造了可降解的粘合剂，其缺点包括成本高，难以或无法扩展，在医疗行业中使用的安全性不足，以及无法在短时间内实现刺激反应。申报材料符合所有粘合剂性能规范，光开关需要2.5分钟。将探讨几种交联剂混合物和乳液形态，以减少粘合转换时间，符合广泛使用所需的规格。将研究所需交联剂的成本和数量沿着工艺控制的复杂性，以优化转换速度和制造成本。将通过涂覆医用级面材制备医用敷料原型，并对其进行表征和测试，以优化性能。最后，产品将被送去进行ISO 10993测试，以证明敷料在开放性伤口上的临床前安全性和有效性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to reduce the prevalence of medical adhesive related skin injuries (MARSI) caused by conventional medical adhesive dressings. MARSI occurs in 7% of all patients across all age groups and all healthcare settings, resulting in about 1.5 million injuries annually in United States alone. It is estimated that in 2012 about $850 million in payments to hospitals were withheld due to low patient satisfaction scores because of MARSI. The average tape-induced skin injury costs $88.50 to treat, which is 125x greater than the average cost of one roll of medical adhesive tape. This project aims to create photo-switchable adhesive dressings, which would significantly reduce MARSI, reducing overall healthcare costs through nurse efficiencies, accelerating healing, improving quality of life for patients, and decreasing use of opioid pain medications. Other industry sectors that have shown interest in photo-switchable adhesives include plastic bottle recycling, industrial sensors and productivity sensor solutions and flexible electronics manufacturing.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project presents a novel adhesive technology platform where adhesive characteristics during application and use can be decoupled from end of life / removal characteristics through photo-switching. This project differs drastically from other research endeavors to create dismantlable adhesives, which have drawbacks including high costs, difficulty or inability to scale, insufficient safety to use in the medical industry, and inability to effect stimuli response within a short time. The proposed material meets all adhesive performance specifications and takes 2.5 minutes to photo-switch. Several crosslinker mixtures and emulsion morphologies will be explored to reduce adhesion switch time, in agreement with specifications needed for broad use. The cost and amounts of crosslinkers needed, along with process control complexity, will be studied to optimize for both switching speed and cost to manufacturing. Prototype medical dressings will be prepared by coating medical grade facestock and will be characterized and tested to optimize performance. Finally, the product will be sent for ISO 10993 tests to prove the pre-clinical safety and efficacy of the dressings on an open wound.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.