Chapter 6 - Healing and monitoring of chronic wounds: advances in wearable technologies

Abstract

Chronic wounds are a significant health challenge that affect tens of millions of people around the world. Given the scale of the challenge, there is a need for advanced wound care and monitoring technologies. In this regard, the recent advent of wearable technologies and their potential application in health monitoring offers huge transformative opportunities for wound monitoring and accelerating wound treatment. This chapter presents an overview of wearable healthcare technologies in context with wound healing and monitoring. The discussion included the effects of electrical stimulation on the wound healing process and various parameters that reflect the healing status around the wound site. Some of the currently developed smart bandages with active healing and monitoring properties are also presented along with the wireless systems that can send real-time data to the patients or the health service providers.