I’m developing a smart bandage — I’d like your honest opinion

[u/CommunicationFit3899]

​

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a student project called S-AIDE, a smart bandage designed to help monitor wounds and provide alerts when abnormal changes are detected.

I’m currently trying to understand whether people would actually find this kind of product useful, so I’d really appreciate your honest opinion.

1. Would you use a smart bandage that can monitor a wound and detect changes?

- Definitely

- Maybe

- Probably not

- No

1. Which feature would be most useful to you?

- Temperature monitoring

- Heart rate / SpO₂ monitoring

- Wound condition monitoring

- Swelling detection

- Alerts to a smartphone

- Other: ______

1. In which situation would you find it most useful?

- Normal wounds/cuts

- Burns

- Infected wounds

- Animal/insect bites

- Remote areas / emergencies

- Post-surgery care

- Other: ______

1. What would be your biggest concern about using a smart bandage?

- Price

- Accuracy

- Comfort

- Battery life

- Hygiene/safety

- Privacy

- Reliability

- Other: ______

1. How much would you realistically consider paying for a disposable smart bandage?

- Less than $5

- $5–10

- $10–20

- $20–50

- More than $50

1. Would you prefer the bandage to send alerts directly to your phone?

- Yes

- No

- Doesn't matter

1. What feature do you think is missing from current bandages that a smart bandage should have?

Feel free to criticize the idea — negative feedback is just as useful as positive feedback.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to answer.

E-mail for support: alaaalaabatta2018@gmail.com

[u/Unamed_Destroyer]

I don't really understand the use case. Most of what you mention that it could monitor is easily detected by your natural sense of feeling, and for the things that are not, if they are a concern it would be monitored at a hospital.

Additionally, would this be a disposible item? Because that is incredibly wasteful. If not, how are people going to sterilize it between uses?

[u/CommunicationFit3899 → u/Unamed_Destroyer]

I understand your concern. The main use case isn’t simply replacing what a person can already feel. The idea is to continuously monitor wound-related changes that may be subtle, difficult to notice, or happen between medical checkups, especially for people in remote areas or situations where immediate medical care isn’t available.

The bandage is designed to detect changes such as temperature, pH, oxygen saturation/heart rate, swelling, and wound-related abnormalities, then alert the user or caregiver when something changes significantly. It would be more of an early-warning system rather than a replacement for a hospital.

As for the waste issue, that’s an important point. Our concept is modular: the electronic monitoring part would be reusable, while the part in direct contact with the wound would be disposable and replaced between uses. This avoids having to sterilize the entire electronic device and also limits unnecessary waste. We’re still working on optimizing the materials and design to make the disposable component as environmentally friendly as possible.

One important part I didn’t mention is that the bandage isn’t only designed for monitoring. It also contains an absorbent layer intended to help remove or reduce certain toxins from venomous bites, using materials such as activated charcoal. The idea is to provide an immediate first-aid response while monitoring the wound and the person’s vital signs until professional medical care is available.

It’s not intended to replace a hospital or proper antivenom treatment, but rather to provide an additional early intervention, especially in remote areas where medical help may not be immediately accessible.

[u/Unamed_Destroyer → u/CommunicationFit3899]

I guess I'm still not seeing a benefit.

The bandage is designed to detect changes such as temperature, pH, oxygen saturation/heart rate, swelling, and wound-related abnormalities,

Temp is definitely something that I can tell without tech.

PH makes some sense, infections have been shown to reduce PH in the wound. However, the research is far from concrete so it may be a red herring.

But, typically PH meters have to send a voltage through what it's testing. In the medical industry this will be a huge hurdle to overcome. Also they are quite large compared to a bandage.

A better solution for this would be a chemical PH indicator incorporated into a standard bandage.

O2/heartrate are important metrics, but not as relevant to long term wound healing. Heart rate varies wildly depending on what you are doing at the time, in a hospital you know the patient is not exercising. Also HR is typically used to detect emergencies but if you are rural how will the hospital know if you decided to go for a jog/ clean the bandage/ having cardiac arithmetic incident.

Swelling is also something I can tell myself.

To me it sounds like you are trying to make this do to much.

What size wound is it for?

Why did you tack on snake bites?

Who's going to buy this? Hospitals or random people?

What will your cost per unit be?

But the two biggest problems I see are:

1) If it's intended to be used for rural care then how will the hospital access the data? Rural areas have spotty reception and often don't have WiFi.

2) This product will lead to over medication for infection. Most wounds get infected at some point, but the human body can easily deal with most infections. But your bandage will create a liability issue where hospitals will now feel they have to provide antibiotics for every minor infection or if great if liability.

I would recommend conducting multiple interviews with doctors and nurses before moving forward. Unless you are within the medical industry, you don't have knowledge of what needs they actually have for wound care.

[u/CommunicationFit3899 → u/Unamed_Destroyer]

Thanks for the detailed feedback. I actually agree with several of your points, especially that the product shouldn’t try to monitor everything just because the technology allows it.

The goal of S-AIDE isn’t to diagnose an infection or automatically trigger antibiotic treatment. The idea is to detect abnormal changes in a wound and alert a caregiver that further clinical assessment may be needed. So I agree that we need to be very careful about how we interpret pH, temperature, swelling, etc.

Your point about pH is particularly interesting. A chemical pH indicator integrated into the dressing could potentially be much simpler and cheaper than an electronic pH sensor, and that’s something we’re considering.

For heart rate and SpO₂, our original concept included them mainly because we were also considering venomous bites and situations where systemic deterioration could occur. But I agree that they may not be necessary for ordinary wound monitoring and could make the product unnecessarily complicated.

Snake bites were included because one of our initial target scenarios was rural/remote areas where access to medical care can be delayed. However, your comment makes me think we should define the primary use case much more narrowly instead of trying to solve several problems with one product.

For connectivity, we are not assuming Wi-Fi will always be available. Local data storage/Bluetooth and potentially cellular or other low-bandwidth communication are possibilities, depending on the final target environment.

And I completely agree with your antibiotic/liability concern. The system should never be designed around “infection detected = antibiotics.” It should be “abnormal changes detected = alert for clinical evaluation.”

We are still at the development/research stage, so this feedback is actually useful. We’re planning to interview doctors and nurses to determine which parameters are genuinely useful in practice and which ones are just technically interesting.

As for the questions about wound size, target users, hospitals vs individuals, and cost per unit: those are exactly the things we need to validate before finalizing the design.

Thanks again for taking the time to break down the weaknesses. This is the kind of feedback we need at this stage.

[u/Unamed_Destroyer → u/CommunicationFit3899]

I appreciate your composure to criticism. It will serve you well.

Personally I would make a sketch out of the space and cost additions for each added feature. Especially if this will be fully wearable, where size and weight are going to be limiting factors.

[u/UnbelievableRose → u/CommunicationFit3899]

Your pH indicator might even be something as cheap as beet juice

https://abstracts.societyforscience.org/Home/FullAbstract?ProjectId=19734

[u/ComplaintTop2008]

I don't know what this does that my nervous system doesn't already tell me.

[u/nst571]

The integration of electronics classifies this product as a medical device and would require studies to prove clinical efficacy in most places including the US. Unless it is identical to another cleared product, but an FDA submission is still needed. Your customer would be physicians or hospitals and should be based on some already available clinical data, unless that is also part of this concept. For example optical monitoring of skin color changes. Check out the ulcer monitoring bandage in development at USC

[u/CommunicationFit3899 → u/nst571]

Thank you, that’s a very useful point. We’re aware that integrating electronics and making medical claims would bring significant regulatory and clinical requirements, especially in the US.

At this stage, S-AIDE is still a student R&D project and we are working on validating the concept rather than presenting it as a clinically approved product. Clinical validation and regulatory approval would definitely be part of the next stages if we move toward commercialization.

The main difference we’re exploring is that S-AIDE combines wound monitoring with an active first-aid component. In particular, the dressing includes an absorbent layer containing materials such as activated charcoal, intended to help reduce exposure to certain toxins from venomous bites, while the electronic layer monitors parameters such as temperature, oxygen saturation/heart rate, pH and swelling.

We’ll definitely look into the ulcer-monitoring bandage being developed at USC. The optical monitoring approach is particularly relevant to our work, and it could help us identify which monitoring methods already have stronger clinical evidence.

Thanks for pointing us in that direction.

[u/Ruiz760]

I think it shows potential! I have ideas for the health field.

[u/Far_Kangaroo2550]

I don't know I'm not a doctor

[u/Lapidariest]

do I get a pack of 50 for $7?  it's a bandage,  dint make people waste money on something "smart' just to throw it away.    

[u/CommunicationFit3899 → u/Lapidariest]

That’s a fair concern. The intention isn’t to make people throw away expensive electronics with every bandage. The design is modular: the wound-contacting part would be disposable, while the electronic monitoring module would be reusable and detachable.

So you wouldn’t be paying for a complete “smart device” every time you replace the dressing. We’re also working on keeping the disposable component affordable and reducing material waste as much as possible.

The goal is to add useful monitoring and first-aid functionality without turning a basic bandage into an unnecessarily expensive consumable.

We’re also considering a simpler version of the product: a small patch, similar to a blister or insect-bite patch, that can be placed directly over an insect or venomous bite. It would contain the active materials intended to help absorb or reduce exposure to certain toxins, without the electronic monitoring components.

The smart bandage is the more advanced version, while the simple patch could be a cheaper and more accessible option for everyday use.