PFI-RP: Development of a Temperature-Sensitive, High-Adhesion Medical Tape for Reducing Pain, Skin Injury, and Dislodgement of Critical Devices for Children in Hospitals

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project is reducing medical adhesive related skin injuries and device dislodgement events. Medical adhesives are used to secure wound care dressings and other critical devices to the skin. Although stronger adhesives can provide a higher level of securement, they are difficult to painlessly remove from the skin and may cause medical-adhesive-related skin injuries, which include skin tears and an increased risk of infection. This project will develop higher adhesion medical tapes, whereby the adhesion can be reduced for removal with the application of heat. This ability to remove easily will significantly reduce the risk of skin injury and subsequent infections while simultaneously providing the high adhesion required for secure attachment of medical devices during hospital care, reducing device dislodgement events and improving the quality of care. If successful, this solution will save over $1 billion annually in healthcare by preventing skin injury and critical device dislodgement. The project will train promising technical professionals in translational entrepreneurship with close mentorship from industry. The proposed project will provide a chemical and physical understanding of temperature responsive adhesives required for high adhesion medical tape that can avoid both skin injury during tape removal and accidental device dislodgement. Current medical tapes do not have a temperature sensitive component to enable higher adhesion coupled with easier release. Initial prototypes have demonstrated an adhesive tape with a substantial temperature-responsive release attribute. Fully understanding the mechanism for this release could impact the development of stimuli-responsive adhesives that could be used for a wide range of medical and nonmedical applications. The major goals of this project are the following: (a) gain a fundamental knowledge of the release mechanism, (b) transfer to a high-volume manufacturing process to demonstrate scaling feasibility, (c) verify these high-volume manufacturing prototypes retain performance after storage with several pilot studies, (d) gain approval for testing in a nearby children’s hospital, and (e) train promising professionals in entrepreneurship and translational team science. This project will facilitate the fabrication of prototypes in a high-volume manufacturing environment that will outperform the current state-of-the-art medical tapes. In addition, highly skilled emerging professionals will receive training in the transition from pilot to high-volume product manufacturing and packaging. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.