Three PhD students from Warsaw University of Technology have been named as the grand prize winners of this year’s James Dyson Award for inventing a sensor that can detect how a wound is healing and if it is infected without needing to remove the dressing.
They were among teams from around the world who entered the contest, which is for university-level designers and engineers or recent graduates. The final global winner – who receives a prize of £30,000 – is picked by British billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson himself.
Tomasz Raczyński, Piotr Walter and Dominik Baraniecki (pictured above) – all aged in their 20s – conceived their idea after learning how changing wound dressings too often can disrupt healing and cause infection.
In the worst cases, that can lead to amputation and even death: 28% of outpatients aged over 70 with chronic wounds die due to complications associated with them, note the trio.
That inspired them to develop SmartHeal, as their product is known. It consists of a pH sensor integrated into the dressing that, by monitoring pH levels, can assess the condition of the wound and detect if there is an infection.
By using an RFID transmitter, it avoids the need for a power supply. Medics or patients thsemeslves can access the data by passing a mobile device over the sensor.
“We offer instant results, a non-invasive product that leads to faster and more comfortable healing processes and can reduce the wound healing time and prevent amputations and death for thousands of patients,” say the team.
“We’ve all nervously peeled back a dressing or plaster to see what is happening underneath,” says Dyson himself. “SmartHEAL provides doctors and patients with a key piece of data – the pH level – that can tell them how a wound is healing. This can improve treatment and prevent infection, saving lives.”
The trio have already produced their first prototype. They claim that, once fully developed, the product can be produced quickly, on a large scale and cheaply – at a cost of 0.5 zloty (€0.11) per sensor.
They now intend to use the prize money from the award as “pre-pre-seed funding” for their venture by helping them extend their research, before seeking further pre-seed funding to refine their prototype. After that, they have the modest aim of “saving the world”.
“I hope the award will give the team impetus to proceed down the tricky path towards commercialisation,” said Dyson.
Main image credit: Warsaw University of Technology. Further images: SmartHeal press materials
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
