Professor Kyung Cheol Choi and Ph.D candidate Yongmin Jeon have successfully developed OLED Wearable Light therapy Patch with Professor Kyoung-Chan Park and Hye-Ryung Choi from Department of Dermatology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH).
Phototherapy is a treatment that promotes the biochemical reaction of the human body by irradiating light. It is widely used to heal wounds through LED or laser devices installed in hospitals. However, conventional phototherapy equipments are not flexible, also it is difficult to uniformly irradiate light, and there is a problem that heat is generated. For these reasons, even if patients wanted to increase the effectiveness of the treatment, there was a limit that can not be attached to the human body.
The phototherapy patch developed by Professor Kyung Cheol Choi’s team is light and flexible, allowing you to maintain high-efficiency treatment while adhering to your skin in daily life. The components OLED, battery, heat sink and patch are designed in the form of thin film, less than 1mm thick and less than 1g in weight. It also operates for a long period of more than 300 hours and can be driven in a bend radius of 20 mm, so it can be attached to various body parts. It operates at less than 42°C, eliminates the risk of low-temperature burns, and it has been verified to be safe by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, and has an excellent healing effect that improves cell proliferation by 58% and cell migration by 46%.
This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Information and Communication / Korea Research Foundation Basic Research Project (ERC : Attachable Photo Therapeutics Center for e-Healthcare)
Published in the International Journal of Advanced Materials Technologies (March 8). More information can be found in the following papers and press releases.
<Papers>
Title: A Wearable Photobiomodulation Patch Using a Flexible Red-Wavelength OLED and Its in Vitro Differential Cell Proliferation Effects
Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admt.201700391/full
<Press releases video link>
[MBC] ▶ OLED adhesive plaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePbSyaJhcMc
[Channel A] ▶ ‘Laser treatment’ as a bandage … Heal the wound with light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yXweMt3uX4
[Yonhapnews TV] ▶ [HOT NEWS] OLED bandages. Light treatment quickly heals hurt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7kR3_Hvdlo
Figure 1. Driving picture of wearable OLED patch attached to skin
Figure 2. Wound healing effect of wearable OLED patch attached to skin