Student invents care wound technology inspired by a colleague

With a degree in aerospace engineering, Ashwinraj was inspired to create this technology after the death of a colleague.

“A couple of weeks before I left for University of Virginia (UVA), she went in for surgery. “It was a standard surgery, nothing serious. She went home that day. A few days later, she passed away because the wound got infected. It was a surgical site infection caused by faulty wound dressing. The surgery did not go wrong, but the dressing was faulty. That’s when I started looking into this issue. It dawned on me that if the problem was this bad in the United States, then it must be much worse in developing countries, where treatments aren’t affordable and health care systems and facilities are not advanced”, he explained.

So the entrepreneur started researching about wound care in developing countries, talking to doctors, patients, industry professionals, etc. and realised there was an unmet need in these areas. He ended up focusing on chronic wound care treatment in the south on India, where a lot of people is diabetic and is at high risk to suffer from chronic wounds.

Phoenix-Aid consists of a five-layered wound care dressing addresses what he has coined “the ABCs of wound healing” – A to accelerate the healing of the wound, B to block pathogens entering the wound site and C to comfort the wound itself.

“In short, what we’re doing is creating something that is moisture attentive and breathable, while at the same time actively and passively killing pathogens,” Karthikeyan said. “It does this efficiently and effectively so that it doesn’t damage the wound, and is durable while still being at a price point that patients can afford”, he said.

He was able to raise money thanks to academic and entrepreneurial prizes and competitions.

Adapted from: https://at.virginia.edu/2hLcoTC

More info: https://www.inmed.bio/
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