Revolutionising Chronic Wound Care: Just-Launched EU Research Project FORCE REPAIR to Develop Smart, 3D-printed Wound Dressing
Chronic wounds, clinically defined as wounds that usually do not heal in less than three months, affect up to 2 % of the population in the industrial world. In addition, in Europe, 2 – 4 % of the total health expenditure is used for wound management. However, current therapies remain insufficient and costly. To date, medical devices to treat chronic wounds have not been able to achieve reliable skin regeneration and reduce scar formation.
FORCE REPAIR will recreate a healthy environment to induce skin self-healing and offer a prolonged regenerative effect. To do so, it will develop a smart wound dressing based on personalised 3D printable biological scaffolds created to reduce undesired infection, mitigate inflammation and relieve skin tension.
The innovative scaffold will also help reduce associated healthcare costs. By providing a prolonged regenerative effect over at least 15 days, the new wound dressing will significantly decrease the daily frequency of nurse attention to change the dressing and lead to a healed wound with a low probability of opening again.
In addition to advancing chronic wound treatment, reducing healthcare costs, and improving patients’ overall quality of life, this project contributes to the global Sustainable Development Goals by developing a new digital solution to minimise material waste and energy consumption with a customised 3D printer. The associated software will contribute to EU leadership in producing materials that provide solutions for a clean, pollutant-free environment.
"At Eurice, we are happy to join the FORCE REPAIR consortium in their quest to improve healthcare effectiveness through an innovative, effective and personalised approach to treating chronic wounds. Chronic wounds are a major public health challenge and need innovative solutions for better treatment. There was a time when wound care was more an art than a science, but thanks to contributions from many disciplines and projects like FORCE REPAIR, wound healing is now solidly based on science and evidence," notes Jörg Scherer, Managing Director of Eurice.
With FORCE REPAIR, the Eurice team further expand their portfolio of health-related projects, specifically addressing the development of innovative technology for better medical solutions.
The project started on 1 January 2023 and will run for four years with a budget of EUR 5,1 million, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. FORCE REPAIR is coordinated by Fundación CIDETEC, Spain, and comprises 18 partners from seven European countries.
For more information, please visit www.forcerepair-wounds.eu
