University hails £475,000 fund into ‘groundbreaking’ eczema technology

Heriot-Watt University has said its “groundbreaking technology” that could “revolutionise how eczema is diagnosed and treated” has received more than £475,000 to move into clinical research.

The university in Edinburgh said the vibroacoustic sensor could end “years of suffering for millions of patients across the UK”.

The device measures material changes in each layer of skin using small vibrations on the surface to detect changes in tissue stiffness and fluid.

The sensor has been awarded £275,000 from Scottish Enterprise and just over £200,000 from the Medical Research Council’s Gap Fund to advance clinical testing and support the development of a spin-out company based on the TissueMetrics project.

Professor Michael Crichton, who is based in the school of engineering and physical sciences, said the technology “represents a fundamental shift in how we approach eczema management”.

He added: “Rather than relying solely on visual assessments, which haven’t evolved in decades and can be particularly unreliable for patients with darker skin tones, our sensor provides objective measurements of what’s happening beneath the skin’s surface.”

Dr Connor Bain, who is on the technical engineering of the technology, explained: “By measuring the elasticity and viscoelasticity of each skin layer, we can detect changes in tissue stiffness and fluid content that indicate inflammation and disease progression.

“This allows healthcare professionals to make data-driven decisions about treatment effectiveness much earlier in the patient journey, potentially reducing the years of suffering many patients endure while trying to find the right treatment.

“What makes our approach particularly powerful is that it works equally well on all skin tones, avoiding the biases that can be common in visual assessments where parameters like redness are difficult to assess on darker skin. This could help address the well-documented healthcare disparities patients experience in dermatological care.”

Heriot-Watt University said the sensor addresses a “critical gap” in eczema and psoriasis treatment” where patients currently face a “lengthy and frustrating cycle of trial and error with various creams and medications”.

Eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, affects up to 20% of children and 10% of adults in the UK.

The research team will now begin testing the sensor on patients with moderate eczema who are undergoing third or fourth-line treatments.

They will also gather feedback from patients and clinicians on its usability.

Professor Richard Weller, dermatology lead for NHS Research Scotland and a University of Edinburgh academic based at the Institute for Regeneration and Repair, explained: “The current system for managing eczema is outdated and inefficient.

“Patients typically go through multiple cycles of treatment with increasingly potent and expensive medications, waiting weeks or months to see if each one works.

“Without objective measures, we’re often making treatment decisions based on visual inspection alone, which can be very subjective.

“This technology has the potential to transform that process by providing quantitative data that can help us identify effective treatments much faster.

“It could enable high-quality dermatological care to be delivered in community settings, dramatically reducing waiting times and improving patient outcomes.

“For dermatologists, it would mean we could focus our specialist skills on the most complex cases, while still providing expert guidance to patients being treated in the community through the objective data their measurements provide.”

Dr Sara Medina-Lombardero, a research associate at Heriot-Watt University who is leading the patient and user clinical development of the technology, added: “The planned clinical evaluation will allow us to confidently correlate our objective measurements to those of specialist dermatologist assessments.

“Success will set us on a path where the sensor could enable treatment tracking and diagnoses to be made in local pharmacies and community healthcare facilities.”

Published: 02/10/2025 by Radio NewsHub