Interdisciplinary research in medical textilesLecture presentation by:

Professor Dr. Faheem Uddin, C. Text., FTIProfessor and Chairman Textile Engineering, BUITEMS, Quetta.

Presented at

Faculty of Life Sciences, BUITEMS, Quetta.

Interdisciplinary research in medical textiles

• Contents• Aims of presentation• What is interdisciplinary research• Why interdisciplinary research• Medical textiles• Market in medical textiles• Pakistan and medical textiles• Doable in medical textiles• Height in medical textiles• Closing comments• Your feedback/ comments/ enquiries

Aims of presentation

• Realization of medical textiles discipline as an interdisciplinary subject of study.

• Introducing medical textiles and developing motivation in the medical textile study.

• Identifying potential areas for the local postgraduate studies in medical textiles.

What is interdisciplinary research- I!

• Interdisciplinary research (IDR) is research by teams or individuals that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research practice.

• Ref: National Academy of Sciences, USA.

• Sustained and intense communication, measureable performance of leadership, appropriate reward and incentive mechanisms (including career and financial rewards), adequate time, seed funding for initial exploration, and willingness. Other key conditions include:

• Common problems must be solved by leadership• An environment that encourages faculty/researcher collaboration establishing

a team philosophy frequent meetings among team members• Closer association of funding organization• Co-location of researchers• Shared instrumentation• Enhancing chance meetings between researchers, such as onsite cafeterias• Professional recognition of successful practitioners of IDR.

• Source- http://www.pkal.org/documents/VisionOfInterdisciplinaryResearch.cfm

Major requirements in interdisciplinary research

Interdisciplinary research teams on ground

What is interdisciplinary research- II

• Scientific revolutions of 17th-century- Europe, Geniuses— Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, Edmond Halley, Robert Boyle etc.

• They led to basic discoveries that bear their names- and also on every kind of interdisciplinary challenge

• Many of the known research achievement are products of interdisciplinary research: discovery of the structure of DNA, magnetic resonance, imaging, laser eye surgery, radar, human genome sequencing, and manned space flight.

Why interdisciplinary research- I• The society, materials and environment that we are

surrounded demand collective response. The results, findings and products of interdisciplinary research bring significant impact in shorter time.

• Today, interdisciplinary centers, institutes, programs, and other structural mechanisms are on and adjacent to university campuses;

• These research units often outnumber traditional departments. Despite frequent tensions over budgets, space, and intellectual turf, many of these centers and institutes are vibrant research and training environments.

Why interdisciplinary research- II

• Interdisciplinary research provide:• Enhanced outcomes for environment, society and

industry.• Reduced research expenditure in achieving

useable products.• Bringing significant value to innovation in the

progress of environment, society and industry.• Today most stable and progressive countries in

world are INNOVATIVE. What about INDIA!

Introducing medical textiles-I• Fibers and textile used in curing, medical treatment

support, health enhancer, and as medicine and ligament.

• Prothesis- An external or synthetic device used as replacement to body part. Artificial knees and hips.

• One in ten American has an implanted medical device. • Examples- Surgeons wear, wound dressings, masks,

bandages, artificial ligaments, sutures, artificial liver/kidney/lungs, nappies, sanitary towels, vascular grafts/heart valves, artificial joints/bones, eye contact lenses and artificial cornea etc. (http://www.prlog.org/10007609-introduction-to-medical-textile.html)

Introducing medical textiles-II

• Indian literature written 2500 years back had mentioned medical purpose use of fibrous fibers- horse hair, cotton, leather strips, animal sinew (tough fibrous tissue connecting muscle to bone), fibrous tree bark.

• Wound closure, sanitary naps, and replacement surgery (vascular grafts, artificial ligaments).

• Softness, flexibility, strength, bio- receptivity, biocompatibility, porosity, non- toxicity.

• Can you see these properties in any other material!!!

Wound closure

The Medical Journal of Australia/Wyeth Award for clinical research work on medical sheepskins

• During a six-month study at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, the CSIRO team, headed by Dr Ken Montgomery, compared the susceptibility to the condition of 218 patients allocated a sheepskin mattress overlay, with a 223-patient reference group.

• The ‘randomised controlled trial’ (RCT), involved:CSIRO, Deakin and Melbourne universities, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Fremantle and St Vincent’s hospitals.A mattress overlay made of Sheepskin can reduce the incidence of pressure ulcers by 58 per cent. This represents a significant cost saving to the Australian medical system and patients.

Mattress overlay sheepskinSheepskin has 6000 fibers per square cm providing a natural cushion to human body and pressure build up.

• Regenerative medicine helps natural healing processes to damaged tissue that would not ordinarily regrow.

• Regenerative therapies were demonstrated (in trials or the laboratory) to heal broken bones, bad burns, blindness, deafness, heart damage, nerve damage, and a range of other conditions. Work continues to bring these advances to patients.

• Aging damages every part of body, however - including the stem cells required for regenerative therapies. Extended healthy longevity, by repairing some of the damage caused by aging, organ by organ!

• http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2003/11/stem-cells-regenerative-medicine-and-tissue-engineering.php

Regenerative medicine

Carbon nanotube yarns in regenerative medicine (wound healing)

• It illustrates how we are seeding fibroblast cells onto carbon nanotube yarns and observing their attachment, growth, morphology and biocompatibility.

• As cells proliferate over the yarn surface, a biological synthetic composite is created with numerous potential applications in regenerative medicine. CSIRO

• A fibroblast cell- a type of cell that synthesizes the extracellular matrix and collagen, the structural framework (stroma) for animal tissues, and play a critical role in wound healing.

Carbon nanotube yarns (fibroblast cell onto)

• The polypropylene granules and the insecticide are mixed and briefly heated so that the two solid components start to liquify and melt together,” Dr. Maren Heinemann, Bayer.

• Subseqent to several additional processing steps, the fine plastic filaments can be woven into tear-resistant, close-meshed and soft bed nets.

• The weave contains uniformly distributed deltamethrin that gradually migrates from the active ingredient in the fibres to its surface.

• “Few seconds of contact is enough to neutralize the Anopheles mosquitoes,” Bayer.

• Visit for picture- http://www.innovationintextiles.com/articles/870.php

Insecticidal mosquito net-fighting malaria

Insecticidal mosquito net

Modeling India in medical textiles- South India Textile Research Association (SITRA)http://www.sitrameditech.org.in/news.php?id=137

Market size Market Potential Market Potential Market Potential

2001-02 (Estimated) 2003-04 (Estimated) 2005-06 (Consumption) 2007-08

(Projected) 2009-10

(Estimated)

Sl No.

Item

Qty. Value Qty. Value Qty. Value Qty. Value Qty. Value

1. Sanitary Napkins 959.69 335.89 1228.11 429.84 -- -- 1997.44 699.10 -- 892.5

2. Incontinence Diapers 3.50 20.00 8.99 53.96 -- -- 22.51 135.07 -- 255.28

3. Baby Diapers 53.85 70.00 61.65 80.14 -- -- 80.81 105.05 -- 120.26

4. Surgical Dressings -- 450.00 -- 520.03 -- 360.00 -- 694.48 -- 802.55

5. Healthcare Textiles -- 3.20 -- 11.15 -- 203.86 -- 120.24 -- 160

6. Sutures -- 225.00 -- 282.00 -- -- -- 441.00 -- 552

7. Vascular grafts -- 3.00 -- 3.19 -- -- -- 3.59 -- 3.75

8. Heart valves -- 49.00 -- 56.00 -- -- -- 73.00 -- 83.37

9. Artificial tendon -- 20.00 -- 25.00 -- -- -- 37.00 -- 45.42

10. Artificial joints -- 7.20 -- 9.00 -- -- -- 14.21 -- 18.35

11. Artificial kidney -- 10.00 -- 13.00 -- -- -- 17.00 -- 22.00

12. Total -- 1193.29 -- 1483.31 -- -- -- 2339.74 -- 2955.48

Medical Textiles in healing: The Unsung heroes

1995 2000 2005 2010Volume

(thousand tons) 1,277 1,542 1,927 2,379

Value (US$ million) 4,391 5,392 6,671 8,239

Unit (US$) 3.58 3.50 3.46 3.46

Worldwide Medical Textiles- Volume and Values1995 – 2010

Source: David Rigby Associates

Pakistan and Medical Textiles

• The Stake holders• Universities• Research funding organizations• Industrial development organizations• Health care sector• Textile departments and institutes• Medical and health departments and institutes• Medicine and health care product manufacturing

and supplying business companies.

Doable- start up in medical textilesFiber name Material structure ApplicationCotton, viscose, lyocell Nonwoven Absorbent pad

Alginate fibre, chitosan, silk, viscose, lyocell, cotton

Woven, nonwoven, knitted

Wound- contact layer

Viscose, lyocell, plastics film Woven, nonwoven Base materialCotton, viscose, lyocell, polyamide fibre, elastomeric-fibre yarns

Woven, nonwoven, knitted

Simple non-elastic and elastic bandages

Cotton, viscose, lyocell, polyester fibre, polypropylene fibre, polyurethane foam

Woven, nonwoven Orthopaedic bandages

Cotton, viscose, plastics film, polyester fibre, glass fibre, polypropylene fibre,

Woven, nonwoven, knitted

Plasters

Polylactide fibre, polyglycolide fibre, carbon

Spunlaid, needle-punched nonwoven

Scaffold

Doable in medical textiles

Collagen, catgut, polyglycolide fibre, polylactide fibre

Monofilament, braided Biodegradable sutures

Polyester fibre, polyamide fibre, PTFE fibre, polypropylene fibre, polyethylene fibre

Monofilament, braided Non-biodegradable sutures

• Comments and Feedback.

• Contact details:• Prof. Dr. Faheem Uddin, C. Text., FTI• Professor and Chairman Textile Engineering

Department, FOE, BUITEMS, Quetta. • Emails. Faheem.Uddin@buitms.edu.pk• dfudfuca@yahoo.ca , scienceamerica@gmail.com

The End