The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project, if successful, will be a major reduction in the prevalence of pressure ulcers achieved through their detection at the earliest stage. More commonly known as bedsores, pressure ulcers are debilitating wounds that prevalently affect bed-bound patients and wheelchair users, estimated at 2.5 million annually. In addition to pain and suffering, pressure ulcers may lead to infection and increased mortality, and they impose a $10 billion burden on the US healthcare system every year. The current standard of care for at-risk patients relies on periodic skin assessments and body repositioning, but research shows that this treatment has limited impact. This engineering project will generate scientific evidence of the body's response to prolonged pressure, which will engage industry stakeholders and investors toward the commercialization of a smart sensing patch capable of detecting pressure ulcers, and the project will enable future pre-clinical and clinical validation studies necessary for FDA clearance and product adoption by hospitals. Importantly, this project will also provide substantial entrepreneurial training and field experience to an engineering graduate who will further develop the commercialization aspects of the technology.
The proposed project will generate groundbreaking knowledge in the field of applied optical imaging and biomedical engineering by imaging and describing mathematically the optical changes occurring in human skin and underlying tissues after exposure to prolonged pressure in a large variety of individuals. To achieve this goal, the team will use a wearable, non-invasive optical patch applied to the sacral area that is known to be at risk of pressure ulcer development in bed-bound patients. No other imaging technology has yet provided quantitative evidence regarding the response of the body to prolonged pressure that may ultimately lead to pressure ulcers; therefore, the outcome of this project will solve a significant technical barrier in this field. Data generated by this study will also inform the technical features of a flexible and disposable smart patch optimized for both cost and performance to facilitate future commercialization efforts.
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.
