"We set out to create a type of bandage that could detect bedsores as they are forming, before the damage reaches the surface of the skin," said Michel Maharbiz, UC Berkeley associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and head of the smart bandage project. Thanks to advances in flexible electronics, Berkeley engineers, in collaboration with colleagues at UC San Francisco, have created a new "smart bandage" that uses electrical currents to detect early tissue damage from pressure ulcers, or bedsores, before they can be seen by human eyes and while recovery is still possible. (#30060)