University of Nottingham researchers have secured a major grant to develop a smart wound dressing embedded with optical fibre sensors to assess whether affected tissue is healing well or is infected. The new disposable dressing could have a significant impact on patient care and healthcare costs for wound management, which stand at £4.5-£5.1bn a year – more than 4 per cent of the NHS budget. Diabetic foot ulcers represent a large proportion of this cost – standing at nearly £1bn - and these hard-to-heal wounds are the initial focus of the project. Better wound monitoring has the potential to reduce the 7,000 lower limb amputations that affect people with diabetes in England each year.