The Aware-Bandage is a device for assisting people and patients for whom excessive bleeding is a concern.
My grandmother started having problems with the dialysis port in her arm. At random, the artery attached to the port would open and blood would pour out. Usually, it would take minutes before she (or another individual) realized that she was bleeding profusely. Our main concern was that she may have one of these episodes during a nap or while asleep in the middle of the night. If my grandmother did happen to wake up during the bleeding, she may be too weak to call upon a family member for help. The thought that her port could open up while sleeping consumed her. My biggest fear was finding her in a pool of blood the next morning. Neither one of us got much sleep until the problem with her artery was remedied.
That is when the idea for the aware-bandage came to my mind. If there was a device that could alert us as soon as excessive bleeding started, both she and I could rest without the thought of death looming over our head.
The Aware Bandage is made of plastic and is placed around a dressed wound encompassing the entire dressing. The wireless chip and all other working components (minus the moisture sensor) are placed on the outside of the plastic sleeve in a sealable pocket. The moisture sensor is placed on the inside of the sleeve (the signal is transmitted through the sleeve with conductive plastic. Hopefully this will not electrocute the patient. I will need to look into this.)
If using inside a home, the patient (and/or caretaker) would place an alarm(s) by his/her bedside. If the patient’s wound opened or leaked excessively, the leeds on the moisture sensor would close, sending a signal to the wireless chip to sound the alarm.
If using at a hospital or nursing home where multiple patients needed to be watched, a tagging system using a replaceable UPC code located on the outside of the sleeve could be implemented, allowing nurses to pinpoint which patient needs immediate attention.
The Aware Bandage needs to satisfy the following requirements:
1) Inexpensive
2) disposable moisture sensor
3) moisture sensor must be kept separate from other components
4) moisture sensor must be sterile
5) reusable wireless alarm system & chip
6) be able to monitor multiple patients from a hub (upc symbols to link patient number to database control unit?)
Ideally, even if the main unit is mildly expensive, all of the parts (except the sleeve and moisture sensor) are reusable.
The Aware Bandage can be used in hospitals, nursing homes and private care recovery. It will improve the quality of life of both the patient and caregiver by reducing stress levels associated with the need to constantly monitor a dressing. It will allow post-op patients to get much needed rest without having to have their bandage checked for leakage by a nurse every hour (which saves the nurse some time as well). If there is excessive bleeding, the Aware Bandage also prevents blood from getting everywhere by containing it in the plastic sleeve. The patient does not need to have his or her bedding or clothes changed, saving everyone from an unnecessary annoyance.
After researching a bit I discovered that there are a few patents out dealing with moisture sensors, but in all of the patent examples, the sensors are measuring levels of water in soil. The inventor states that his idea could be applied to uses in bandages, but he does not further explain as to how he would do so. All together it seemed as if each person was having the same problems – how to keep costs low and the sensor sterile.
Possible problems could include the use of a wireless device to transmit the status of the patient’s Aware Bandage to the hub at the nurses’ station. This may be overridden by having sleeve attached to a base located at patient’s bedside. For home use, I would still like to keep it wireless for ease of movement and sleep.
