Fashionable Medications: Skip the Aspirin and Grab a T-Shirt

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). You most likely won't find these articles of clothing at your local mall, but medicine-enriched clothes are the current focus of several research teams. One group at Germany's Hohenstein Institute is working on developing microcapsules to treat skin diseases such as eczema with the therapeutics woven directly into clothing. The medication would be activated upon contact with the patient's skin.

Forerunners of these so-called "smart clothes" were such items as deodorizing socks, which have been on the marketplace for quite some time. While the air-enhancing socks undoubtedly make their wearers and those around them happy, these new products strive to go the next level and actually deliver a true therapeutic treatment or even provide evaluations of medical conditions.

These latest advances in drug delivery technology includes tights from Austria that upon reacting to body heat release vitamins A, B and C into the skin, socks to treat athlete's foot, T-shirts to battle headaches and even silver-coated underwear for dermatitis sufferers. There is even work on a "smart" bandage, that would be made of fiber that could detect bacteria or virus in a wound, and tell the wearer if treatment with antibiotics is warranted and which would be appropriate to use.

Some of the innovations are for convenience, but no less important in their own way for adding to quality of life. Companies like California's VivoMetrics developed the Life Shirt System, which won international recognition for allowing patients who would normally need regular hospital checkups to go about their business while the shirt continuously monitors their condition. And in Italy, Dr. Alexandra Fede launched the JoyDress, which uses a network of fine, flexible pads to give a soothing massage at the touch of a button.

For a unique, half hour discussion focusing on spending trends in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, with Annette Kreuger, Manager Pharmaceutical/Biotech with Industrialinfo.com, tune in to Crazy Al's Radio Party IndustryToday segment, by clicking on to the following link: Oldies & Industrial News