CRII: SCH: Compact and Affordable, Non-intrusive mmWave and IoT enabled skin monitors - A Synergy for Chronic Skin Wound Evaluation and Prognosis

烧伤、糖尿病、溃疡和其他医疗条件造成的慢性皮肤伤口可能会压倒皮肤的再生能力，导致持续感染，严重时甚至截肢。美国每年有1000多万慢性创面患者接受治疗，估计每年的治疗费用超过400亿美元。对慢性皮肤创伤的准确诊断，特别是在早期阶段，可以提供有效和有针对性的治疗，最终减少患者的痛苦。目前的烧伤创面诊断和预后仅限于医生的肉眼检查，患者在身体上被要求在医疗中心接受昂贵的创面成像方法或反复拆卸绷带进行检查的痛苦过程。即使在健康方面取得了最新的进步，智能绷带也只能帮助药物释放，而不能提供实时诊断或监测。这项拟议的研究旨在通过开发可与现有智能绷带轻松集成的变革性成像和伤口监测方法来克服与现有烧伤伤口概况相关的障碍，以提供伤口状态的实时信息，而不影响他们的日常工作。该项目还将促进快速增长的生物医疗无线工程领域的劳动力发展。将利用生物传感和物联网技术方面的新学位和新课程来促进STEM外联计划和协调外联活动。后者的目标是从迈阿密-戴德县和布罗沃德县招募更多的本科生和K-12学生，接受无线工程方面的培训。我们的标志性外展计划包括车轮工程师、工程博览会、Enlace(参与拉美裔社区教育)和迈阿密PREP(积极青年准备)计划。皮肤创伤治疗的准确诊断和预后通常需要测量伤口面积、最大伤口深度、伤口渗出物的化学成分和受影响的组织类型。此外，用于非侵入性诊断的传感器需要克服以下挑战，即1)绷带提供的衰减，2)在使用射频(RF)传感器时遵守法规要求，3)避免电池供电的电子设备，以及4)跨人口统计的准确诊断。建议开发一种非侵入性、负担得起的无线实时伤口评估设备，可以轻松地集成到智能绷带上，这一提议具有变革性，因为它将生物医学工程、网络工程和电磁学等跨学科研究领域统一到一个目标上。具体地说，PI将与生物医学研究人员密切合作，以实现以下目标：1)开发毫米波传感系统，通过电阻抗频谱计算皮肤阻抗随伤口深度的变化，以约0.1 mm的精度估计皮肤伤口深度；2)实现基于物联网的无线连接，采用低功耗、低成本的协议，在精简的SWAP-C封装中传输使用集成电气、电化学和射频毫米波传感器获得的重要伤口愈合细节。拟议的研究能力有可能为远程评估皮肤烧伤、溃疡和其他慢性皮肤伤口的医学成像工具带来革命性的变化，通过实现安全、准确和自力更生的烧伤伤口监测系统使全球社会受益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Chronic skin wounds resulting from burns, diabetes, ulcers, and other medical conditions can overwhelm the skin's regenerative capabilities, leading to persistent infections and even amputations in severe cases. Over 10 million patients with chronic wounds are treated yearly in the United States, with an estimated cost of more than US $ 40 billion in annual spending for treatment. Accurate diagnosis of chronic skin wounds, particularly in the early stage, can provide efficient and targeted treatment, ultimately reducing patient suffering. Current burn wound diagnosis and prognosis are limited to visual inspection by the physician and patients are physically required to be in the medical center to undergo expensive wound imaging approaches or the excruciating process of repeated bandage removals for inspection. Even with the latest advances in health, smart bandages can only aid in drug releases and do not provide real-time diagnosis nor monitoring. This proposed research aims to overcome the obstacles associated with existing burn wound profiling by developing transformational imaging and wound monitoring approaches that can be readily integrated with existing smart bandages to provide real-time information of the wound state without affecting their daily routine. This project will also foster workforce development in the rapidly growing area of bio-medical wireless engineering. New degrees and new curricula in biosensing and IoT technologies will be leveraged to promote STEM outreach programs and coordinate outreach activities. The latter will be aimed at recruiting larger cohorts of undergraduates and K-12 students from the local Miami-Dade and Broward counties to be trained in wireless engineering. Examples of our signature outreach programs to be leveraged include Engineers on Wheels, Engineering Expo, ENLACE (Engaging Latino Communities for Education), and the Miami PREP (Positive Youth Preparedness) programs.Accurate diagnosis and prognosis of a skin wound treatment commonly require the measurement of the wound area, maximal wound depth, the chemical composition of wound exudate, and type of tissue affected. In addition, sensors for non-intrusive diagnosis need to overcome the following challenges, namely 1) attenuation provided by bandages, 2) adherence to regulatory requirements while employing radio frequency (RF) sensors, 3) avoiding battery-powered electronics, and 4) accurate diagnosis across demographics. The proposed development of a non-intrusive, affordable, wireless real-time wound assessment device that can be easily integrated to a smart bandage is transformative as it unites the interdisciplinary research areas of biomedical engineering, network engineering, and electromagnetism towards a single goal. Specifically, the PI will be working closely with bio-medical researchers towards the, 1) Development of mmWave sensing system to estimate skin wound depth with ~0.1 mm accuracy, through electrical impedance spectroscopy, by computing the variation of the skin impedance as the wound depth varies, and 2) Realization of IoT-based wireless connectivity employing low-power low-cost protocol to transfer vital wound healing details obtained using integrated electrical, electrochemical and RF mmWave sensors, in a reduced SWAP-C package. The proposed research capabilities have the potential to revolutionize medical imaging tools for remote assessment of skin burn injuries, ulcers, and other chronic skin wounds, benefiting the global society by realizing a safe, accurate, and self-reliant burn-wound monitoring system.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.