HYDROHEAL: THE JOURNEY
What is the BioDesign Challenge?
The BioDesign Challenge is an international university competition which is all about envisioning the future of biotechnology through design and art. The team from Sydney Uni have indeed pushed the boundaries and created a product at the intersection of biotechnology and design to challenge a pertinent medical problem in modern society today.
Introducing HydroHeal
HydroHeal was created by a team of five students from the University of Sydney for the BioDesign Challenge 2018 and entered into the Medicine category.
HydroHeal is an intelligent solution to superficial-partial burn wounds. It is a unique burn dressing which is applied as a gel and sealed with a hydrophobic coating, which stays on for the entire duration of the patient’s healing process. It uses a combination of artificial intelligence and naturally-derived ingredients to aid both patients and clinicians in the healing, monitoring and treatment of the burn wound. The dressing is accompanied with a mobile application for patients and a desktop app for clinicians to streamline the monitoring process for both patients and clinicians.
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The First Steps
The initial stages consisted of research - and lots of it. The three design students in the team undertaking a Bachelor of Design Computing from the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning forayed into the medical space, and searched for pertinent issues that could be addressed through biotechnology and design. After a great deal of exploration and analysis, burns was a key medical area that the students decided to further delve into.
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Burns: What’s the issue?
The treatment and management of burns (superficial-partial burns in particular) was a key problem space the students realised had enormous potential to be reimagined and rethought. Even in today’s modern society, the current methods of burn care proved to have many shortfalls. This included:
For patients:
Excruciatingly painful bandage changes which are required very often, throughout the duration of the healing process in order to protect the wound. This wound changing and redressing procedure often causes further exacerbation of the wound, ironically.
The physical constraints of traditional burn dressings that reduced mobility, were uncomfortable to wear and are often not waterproof which thus impedes on everyday activities.
Many time consuming clinician visits and reliance on their doctor to visually inspect the wound and let them know how their healing progress is going, and administer any treatment if required. There are no current methods for patients to accurately gauge thier own healing progress, and as such there have been often cases where patients have endured painful wound undressing procedures for a short visual check-up, only to be told they are progressing fine and the bandage removal process was not actually necessary in the first place.
For clinicians:
Visual checkups are the only current method of inspecting patient’s healing progress. As such, it can be extremely time and resource consuming to bring patients in and conduct such inspections, and is wasteful of time and resources when it turns out the patient did not require the inspection and any treatment at all.
Most commonly used burn dressings are often single-use and thus consumes a great deal of resources and generates waste.
There are no current methods for monitoring their patients remotely or gauging their wound healing progress apart from when they come in for appointments, which can make it difficult to proactively preempt preventive measures or provide treatment at the earliest possible stage.
Having a clear understanding of this problem space was the best way to begin creating truly meaningful solutions. As user experience designers, the students focussed heavily on empathising with the various stakeholders in order to understand these real issues at hand. The students thus began ideating and envisioning potential solutions.
Initial Stages of HydroHeal
The idea for a revolutionary burn dressing was conceived, in order to challenge traditional burn dressings and provide a holistic solution that would overcome the above user problems.
The initial idea for HydroHeal began as a simple hydrogel, contained within a tube which could be spread over a user’s affected burn site. The gel would form a protective layer, and an accompanying sticker with a progress meter on it would sync up with sensors within the gel to indicate the wound healing progress.
The Development Stages
Two students studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Science joined the team in order to assist in the development of HydroHeal.
A student from the team was able to meet with Profession Peter Maitz, Director of the Burns Unit in Concord Hospital. Professor Maitz shared his experiences and issues in dealing with burn wounds, and was aided in evaluating our initial idea thus far, especially questioning our usage of sensors and remote monitoring of wounds. He recounted the inefiiciencies of the current burn management system, where he once had a burn patient flown in from a rural area (which health insurance paid for); his wound undressed and visually inspected for a minute, and then concluded that there was no problems before the patient was flown back. Our students empathised with the time-consuming nature and burden on the healthcare system that the current methods of burn management caused.
The importance of moisture levels and a patient’s unique biological reaction to wound dressings which could affect this was a key issue that he revealed had not been addressed.
He also pointed out the potential for our concept to have applications in other chronic wound conditions, such as diabetic foot ulcers.
Following this meeting, the importance of defining clear factors that the sensors in the gel would monitor to gauge progress caused further research to be undertaken. Finally, the four key wound indicators which are required to be measured in order to create a comprehensive analysis of the wound’s healing progress was deemed to be: oxygen concentration, hydration levels, pH levels and temperature. Students also developed the funtionality of the dressing to not only protect the wound, but intelligently control the wound’s moisture levels in order to provide an ideal healing environment at all times.
The students also had the opportunity to meet with Hala Zreiqat, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and head of the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Research Unit in Sydney Uni’s Faculty of Engineering. She provided invaluable insight into biomaterials - alginate and cellulose - which would be ideal to aid in the burn dressing absorbing excess wound exudate, whilst providing an optimally moist environment to be conducive for healing.
The notion of the Lotus Effect - the hydrophobic nature of lotus leaves observed in nature - was also brought to light, where the idea of incorporating a hydrophobic spray to seal the burn dressing would be fitting in order to protect the wound from water and exterior contaminants, whilst still ensuring mobility.
Students also conducted user testing sessions with various individuals who had experienced burns before, and were able to draw out beneficial insights about the ideal form, texture, delivery mechanism and usage patterns of the HydroHeal dressing.
Bringing to attention the need for a modern solution which fits in the lives of our users was a particular issue that caused the students to develop a mobile application for patients, and a desktop application for clinicians to more effectively monitor, track and clearly understand the internal workings of the HydroHeal dressing.
The unique HydroHeal applicator was also created as a result of these user testing sessions, which aids in thinly laying the gel down onto the patient’s burn site without the need for spreading or rubbing which would painfully irritate the wound. The applicator was ergonomically designed to allow precision application, and refillable to minimise wastage of single-use resources.