MICA: Monitoring wound status using multi-parameter optical fibre sensors
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: Faculty of Engineering
Abstract
A recent analysis of the health economic burden of wounds highlighted that ~2.2 million wounds were managed by the NHS in 2012/2013 requiring annually 18.6 million practice nurse, 10.9 million community nurse, 7.7 million GP and 3.4 million hospital outpatient visits. The annual NHS cost of managing these wounds is £4.5-5.1 billion (~4% of the entire NHS budget).
We propose to develop a wound dressing incorporating inexpensive optical fibre sensors (OFS) which will monitor whether a wound is healing, whether healing is not progressing and whether a wound is infected. The proposed sensors have been developed and validated by our team in laboratory tests thus greatly reducing project risk.
The new dressing could have a significant impact on NHS costs and patient care. It will enable clinical interventions to take place promptly but only when required, thus improving wound care and reducing the number of NHS appointments. Studies will involve clinic based evaluation followed by a community based study of patients with chronic wounds. Design, regulatory, statistics and health economics expertise will help to support development of a valuable, safe tool that is acceptable to patients and clinicians.
We propose to develop a wound dressing incorporating inexpensive optical fibre sensors (OFS) which will monitor whether a wound is healing, whether healing is not progressing and whether a wound is infected. The proposed sensors have been developed and validated by our team in laboratory tests thus greatly reducing project risk.
The new dressing could have a significant impact on NHS costs and patient care. It will enable clinical interventions to take place promptly but only when required, thus improving wound care and reducing the number of NHS appointments. Studies will involve clinic based evaluation followed by a community based study of patients with chronic wounds. Design, regulatory, statistics and health economics expertise will help to support development of a valuable, safe tool that is acceptable to patients and clinicians.
Technical Summary
A recent analysis of the health economic burden of wounds (Guest et al BMJ Open 2015;5:e009283) highlighted that ~2.2 million wounds were managed by the NHS in 2012/2013 requiring annually 18.6 million practice nurse, 10.9 million community nurse, 7.7 million GP and 3.4 million hospital outpatient visits. The annual NHS cost of managing these wounds is £4.5-5.1 billion (~4% of the entire NHS budget).
We propose to develop a wound dressing incorporating inexpensive optical fibre sensors (OFS) which will monitor parameters associated with wound healing. The sensors will be fabricated in thin (~100um diameter), lightweight, low cost optical fibres incorporated into a wound dressing.
The new dressing could have a significant impact on NHS costs and patient care. It will enable clinical interventions to take place promptly but only when required, thus improving wound care and reducing the number of NHS appointments. Studies will involve clinic based evaluation followed by a community based study of patients with chronic wounds. Design, regulatory, statistics and health economics expertise will help to support development of a valuable, safe tool that is acceptable to patients and clinicians.
We propose to develop a wound dressing incorporating inexpensive optical fibre sensors (OFS) which will monitor parameters associated with wound healing. The sensors will be fabricated in thin (~100um diameter), lightweight, low cost optical fibres incorporated into a wound dressing.
The new dressing could have a significant impact on NHS costs and patient care. It will enable clinical interventions to take place promptly but only when required, thus improving wound care and reducing the number of NHS appointments. Studies will involve clinic based evaluation followed by a community based study of patients with chronic wounds. Design, regulatory, statistics and health economics expertise will help to support development of a valuable, safe tool that is acceptable to patients and clinicians.
Planned Impact
A recent analysis of the health economic burden of wounds highlighted that ~2.2 million wounds were managed by the NHS in 2012/2013 requiring annually 18.6 million practice nurse, 10.9 million community nurse, 7.7 million GP and 3.4 million hospital outpatient visits. The annual NHS cost of managing these wounds is £4.5-5.1 billion (~4% of the entire NHS budget).
Among chronic wounds, diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are particular group which currently accounts for almost £1 billion each year - almost 1% of the total NHS cost. The bulk of these costs are made up NHS appointments and hospital admissions for DFUs which deteriorate.
The proposed wound dressing could have a significant impact on NHS costs and patient care. Introducing remote monitoring of wound status via optical fibre sensing will notify a patient and clinician when the wound is in an adverse state, either wound healing is not progressing or the wound is infected. This will enable clinical interventions to take place promptly but only when required, thus improving wound care and reducing the number of NHS appointments. For example, if monitoring indicates that wound healing is progressing well then this will reduce the need for specialist review and can reduce the frequency of dressing changes. If the wound status deteriorates rapidly, e.g. due to infection, then this will trigger urgent specialist review. There is evidence that early expert assessment of DFUs leads to improved outcome, with reduced hospital admissions and amputations (www.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30107).
In future the technology also has the potential to be applied as a tool to predict tissue breakdown in those with vulnerable skin (e.g. people with diabetes and older people). It could also be used as a technology for testing the performance and claims of advanced wound dressings.
Among chronic wounds, diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are particular group which currently accounts for almost £1 billion each year - almost 1% of the total NHS cost. The bulk of these costs are made up NHS appointments and hospital admissions for DFUs which deteriorate.
The proposed wound dressing could have a significant impact on NHS costs and patient care. Introducing remote monitoring of wound status via optical fibre sensing will notify a patient and clinician when the wound is in an adverse state, either wound healing is not progressing or the wound is infected. This will enable clinical interventions to take place promptly but only when required, thus improving wound care and reducing the number of NHS appointments. For example, if monitoring indicates that wound healing is progressing well then this will reduce the need for specialist review and can reduce the frequency of dressing changes. If the wound status deteriorates rapidly, e.g. due to infection, then this will trigger urgent specialist review. There is evidence that early expert assessment of DFUs leads to improved outcome, with reduced hospital admissions and amputations (www.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30107).
In future the technology also has the potential to be applied as a tool to predict tissue breakdown in those with vulnerable skin (e.g. people with diabetes and older people). It could also be used as a technology for testing the performance and claims of advanced wound dressings.
Publications
He C
(2021)
Optical fibre sensor for simultaneous temperature and relative humidity measurement: Towards absolute humidity evaluation
in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical
He C
(2020)
Real-Time Humidity Measurement during Sports Activity using Optical Fibre Sensing
in Sensors
He C
(2021)
Volatile Organic Compound Vapour Measurements Using a Localised Surface Plasmon Resonance Optical Fibre Sensor Decorated with a Metal-Organic Framework.
in Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
Liu L
(2020)
Multi-Parameter Optical Fiber Sensing of Gaseous Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Liu L
(2021)
Chemically Functionalised Suspended-Core Fibre for Ammonia Gas Detection
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Liu L
(2022)
Localised plasmonic hybridisation mode optical fibre sensing of relative humidity.
in Sensors and actuators. B, Chemical
Liu L
(2022)
A single-film fiber optical sensor for simultaneous measurement of carbon dioxide and relative humidity.
in Optics and laser technology
Tang Z
(2021)
A U-Shape Fibre-Optic pH Sensor Based on Hydrogen Bonding of Ethyl Cellulose With a Sol-Gel Matrix
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Title | Fibre Optic Chemical Sensing |
Description | The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for chemical sensing employing an optical fibre |
IP Reference | DJC105900P.GBA |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2021 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | Filed 1st March 2021 |