I-Corps: Reducing medical adhesive-related skin injuries while using high-adhesion tape

Award ID: 2149741

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a high-adhesion medical tape that may be removed in seconds without skin injury. The proposed technology may be especially beneficial for children and elderly because they have thinner and more fragile skin. Medical tape is used to hold essential devices to the skin for long periods of time. Unfortunately, without means for safe removal, these strong adhesive tapes are painful to remove from the skin, often resulting in medical adhesive-related skin injuries (MARSI). Medical tape that offers high adhesion while providing means for safe removal may gain immediate traction in childrens hospitals. The proposed high-adhesion medical tape is designed to release from skin upon warming with a heat pack. The proposed technology may lead to commercialization of a novel medical tape that would affect patients and caregivers worldwide, leading to reductions of pain felt by patients and anxiety experienced by both patients and caregivers. In addition, there are other potential commercial applications outside of healthcare that benefit from heat-responsive adhesives, making for an expansive global market. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a temperature responsive adhesive that may be manufactured into high adhesion tapes and labels. The plan is to formulate a variety of temperature sensitive polymers (TSPs) and incorporate them into the pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) so when the mixture reaches 43C, the tape loses most of its adhesion. Based on the makeup of the proposed PSA, certain TSP characteristics make these polymers compatible with the PSA. One TSP has been tested and the goal is to test others to understand how these various TSPs interact with a PSA system, and the mechanism for peel force reduction. Initial data on one TSP formulation has shown a 75% decrease in peel force after heating with a heat pack approved for human use. Since these additives are expected to create new classes of skin-safe heat-releasing adhesive bandages, performance will be optimized by understanding their temperature-responsive performance mechanisms during use and preserving functionality during storage/shipping to choose the best candidates for future products. By comparing three distinctly different additives, mechanisms of action will be determined by means of analytical surface analysis, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and peel force measurements. 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.

NSF Program Director: Ruth Shuman