smartBandage - Developing a demonstrator for continuous monitoring of compression therapy efficacy

下肢静脉溃疡（VLU）是一种影响大约1%人口的慢性疾病。首选的治疗方案是应用压迫疗法，与佩戴者的活动一起促进愈合。然而，高达73%的压迫绷带应用不充分，没有方法来测量准确的压力或监测患者的活动。不适和缺乏意识意味着55%的患者不服从，愈合需要的时间远远超过6个月的目标。VLU每年花费英国国民医疗服务体系1.98亿英镑，其中大部分是由于社区护理时间，他们花了大约50%的时间在病人就诊上。在Smartlife，我们有smart绷带，这是一项受专利保护的智能纺织品解决方案，可以连续实时地精确测量刻度压力。我们的解决方案将信息无线发送到用户应用程序，供患者和护理人员访问。这可以监测伤口愈合，绷带运动或磨损和患者活动。产出意味着治疗可以个性化定制，提高患者意识，促进治疗依从性，从而提高治愈率。预计每年将为英国的医疗保健行业节省8000万英镑，并带来显著的社会效益。与Crawford Healthcare合作，该项目的目标是将smart绷带从概念验证转变为医疗认证的工作原型。

Venous leg ulceration (VLU) is a chronic condition that affects roughly 1% of the population. The preferred treatment option is application of compression therapy, which alongside wearer activity promotes healing. However, up to 73% compression bandages are inadequately applied with no method to measure accurate pressure or monitor patient activity. Discomfort and lack of awareness means 55% of patients are non-compliant and healing takes much longer than the target 6 months. VLU costs the UK NHS £198m per year, the majority of which is due to community nursing time who spend ~50% of their time on patient visits. At Smartlife, we have smartBandage, a patent protected intelligent textile solution, which enables accurate measuring of graduated pressure continuously and in real-time. Our solution sends information wirelessly to a user application to be accessed by both patient and carer. This allows monitoring of wound healing, bandage movement or wear and patient activity. The outputs mean treatment can be personally tailored and patient awareness is increased promoting treatment adherence and so improving healing rates. Savings of £80m per year are predicted for the healthcare industry in the UK as well as significant social benefits. Partnered with Crawford Healthcare, the aim of this project is to take smartBandage from proof of concept to a working prototype prepared for medical certification.