Inspired by her aunt’s struggle with lymphoedema, Auckland Bioengineering Institute researcher Dr Massi Hesam is developing wearable sensors that could transform treatment for millions.
When Dr Massi Hesam was growing up in Iran, she and other family members spent hours massaging her aunt’s swollen limbs.
Now working with the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) Biomimetics Lab at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, Hesam is working to bring precise data and personalised treatment to the control of lymphoedema.
These days, lymphoedema is increasingly treated with what’s called an ‘intermittent pneumatic compression’, or IPC device – a sort of cross between a compression sock you might wear on the plane, and an all-of-limb blood pressure cuff.
The device wraps around someone's arm or a leg and has chambers which inflate and deflate increasing the flow of blood and lymphatic fluid. Clinicians can dial up or down the squeezing from the cuff, but it’s still an inexact science.
Which is where Hesam’s sensors come in. Her team at the ABI has recently received $1 million through the Government’s Endeavour Smart Ideas fund to develop soft, skin-friendly sensor garments that will fit under an IPC pressure cuff and measure the level of squeezing being applied.
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