ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Coming soon to an injury near you, smart bandages - first aid that can talk to your doctor and even deliver medical treatment.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAND-AID COMMERCIAL)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (Singer) I am stuck on Band-Aid brand 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me.
SCHMITZ: Think of them as high-tech cousins to the Band-Aids you put on your scraped knee as a kid.
GEOFFREY GURTNER: It looks kind of like a gel Band-Aid with electronic circuits on the top.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Dr. Geoffrey Gurtner chairs the department of surgery at the University of Arizona. He's among the many researchers developing smart bandages. He's working on one with Stanford University.
GURTNER: Our particular bandage is meant to sense impending infection, and then to deliver therapy to prevent the infection.
SCHMITZ: His smart bandage treats wounds with electrical pulses.
GURTNER: Other bandages might deliver antibiotics remotely, or light as the modality for therapy.
SCHMITZ: The Pentagon is funding Gurtner's research. It hopes the bandages could help treat wounded soldiers, and others, during war.
GURTNER: There's a lot of interest in devices that can be carried by the field medics that can deliver some of those therapies on the battlefield.
MARTIN: Smart bandages could one day help diagnose and treat postoperative infections, but Gurtner says that's a ways off. The first generation of devices, he says, should start hitting the market in two to three years.
SCHMITZ: So, Michel, are you a fan of this? Would you use this - these smart bandages?
MARTIN: I do not like smart anything.
SCHMITZ: (Laughter).
MARTIN: I think I would personally like these devices to teach people things like please and thank you and not to cut into me at traffic without signaling. That's what I'd like.
SCHMITZ: Those are lofty goals, Michel.
MARTIN: I know.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE OLYMPIANS' "SAGITTARIUS BY MOONLIGHT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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