English
DIAMOND
Smart dressing for diabetic wounds
Objective of the project
The overall objective is to develop a connected dressing, including sensors to monitor in real time the biological parameters indicative of an infection or poor wound healing and a stimuli-responsive hydrogel loaded with drugs that can be released on demand. The project is motivated by a particularly acute therapeutic need in the Zone and by a well-developed industrial fabric that will be able to economically exploit the results.
Indeed, the Hauts-de-France region has the highest prevalence in metropolitan France with a rate of 6.2%. In 2020, 6.6% of the Belgian population had a known diagnosis of diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes is higher in Wallonia (8%) than in Flanders (6%), and it is higher among people with lower socioeconomic status. The prevalence of diabetes increases over time due to population aging and obesity (30% increase from 2007 to 2020).
Diabetes is a chronic disease that facilitates the installation of infected lesions and leads to the development of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs), the most common, disabling and costly complications of diabetes (leading to amputation in 21% of cases).
In this context, the scientific community is striving to find new treatments such as antimicrobial agent delivery systems with local administration that would increase the amount of active ingredient directly in the wound without toxic effect on the body. It is therefore important to detect in real time biological signals indicating a healing defect using a connected dressing to trigger a therapeutic action. At present, there are only dressings on the market with passive release of active molecules and without monitoring of biological parameters. In this project, we propose to integrate into the dressing of the sensors AND a stimulable hydrogel allowing the triggering of the release of active ingredients (anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, ….) encapsulated in it. The interest is to deliver the active molecules only when necessary. This helps fight against multi-resistance bacteria, reduce side effects, improve healing and reduce the frequency of dressing changes.
In addition to the obvious long-term benefits for patients and Public Health, this type of innovative dressings is of great commercial interest to the many companies in the sector located in the Zone.
At the end of the project, connected dressing demonstrators will be made with methods transferable to companies in the field of dressings and Medtech.
The final beneficiaries are companies (large and small) in the Zone, hospitals and health centres and the scientific community.
Total budget of the project (Multitel): 298 514,96 €
- EU funding (ERDF): 179 108,97 €
- Walloon Region funding : 44 777,24 €
Contribution of Multitel
Multitel’s participation in the development of DIAMOND’s connected dressing focuses on the analysis, development and testing as part of a proof of concept, of the real-time measurement of variations in electrical parameters (resistivity, impedance, capacity) active materials developed by the other partners. Multitel will also work on their interpretation to link them to measurements of physical parameters such as humidity, the heat or the presence of pathogens induced by the evolution of the wound in interaction with the active ingredients developed by the other partners of the DIAMOND project. This will be done through a specific reader made available to the medical staff who will approach the dressing to perform this data acquisition. Multitel is also involved in the development of an activation system for the controlled release of active ingredients that would be stored in the dressing as a pierceable cartridge.
All these developments will be carried out in compliance with the functional constraints of being low cost for industrial integration into the dressing and operating without a power source or complex electronics integrated into it (passive system without a battery).