​​No More Tears: A Child-Centered Abrasion Patch That Stays On and Comes Off Painlessly

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Every active childhood comes with scraped knees. The fall rarely makes a child cry, taking the plaster off does. FlowPatch is a child-centred, atraumatic abrasion patch for knees and elbows, developed by a six-person cross-disciplinary team from three Viennese universities (TU Wien, BOKU, WU Wien). It solves the two failures every parent knows: Conventional plasters fall off a bending joint during play, and they hurt coming off. Across three documented business-model iterations and 56+ caregiver interactions, the team has converged on a single product that holds during play and removes without tears, positioned as a premium, pharmacy-first consumer-health device for the Austrian market and the wider DACH region. 

Goal 

Our vision is simple: calmer, less painful wound care for active children. Minor knee and elbow scrapes are a small but constant source of stress in family life. The plaster falls off during play and hurts when it is taken off. Our first product targets exactly that stress, for everyone involved: the child, the parent, and the pharmacist who needs to recommend something that stays on a moving joint. The goal is to make an abrasion dressing a non-event for the child, quick and confident for both caregiver and child.  

Methodology 

The project advanced through three iterations, each a deliberate test of a prioritised assumption. It began as FlowStop (an emergency tourniquet), which was abandoned for structurally unattractive demand, slow procurement and a heavy regulatory pathway, then pivoted to a child-focused abrasion patch where learning velocity and resource fit are far higher. Validation combined desk research (paediatric-injury epidemiology, soft-silicone wound-care literature) with two rounds of primary field research: 

Iteration 2: A structured intercept survey of n=36 parents at Vienna pharmacies (April 2026), confirming the broad direction. 

Iteration 3: n=20 structured pharmacy interviews across eight Vienna pharmacies (1–4 May 2026), narrowed to the prioritized early-adopter profile, with anatomy-specific items. 

In parallel, the team specified the prototype at component level and resolved the central design question on how the patch stays on. Rather than a painful acrylic adhesive, FlowPatch uses a self-tensioning helical-knit mesh sleeve where the weave itself is the closure. No clasp, no adhesive on skin, combined with a soft-silicone wound contact pad that does not bond to the graze. The regulatory pathway was deliberately designed as MDR Class I (Rule 4): a mechanical barrier for minor injuries, self-declared, with no Notified Body, avoiding any moisture-management or healing claim that would raise the class. A transparent cost-to-shelf cascade was built bottom-up to anchor pricing inside the fixed Austrian pharmacy margins. 

Results 

Both core problems were independently confirmed and quantified. Pain at removal replicated across two independent samples (M=5.5/7 at n=36; M=5.4/7 at n=20), and 85% of caregivers recalled a plaster failing on a joint during play. The concept resonated strongly: attractiveness scored M=5.7/7, with 10 of 20 respondents spontaneously praising the "bandage and plaster in one" idea. The pharmacy channel was preferred by 70%, and 60% were willing to buy at the indicative €25 / 10-pack price. 

On these results the team defined a credible go-to-market and financial plan. Validated unit economics give a manufacturer net revenue of €13.33 on €7.80 COGS per 10-pack (≈41% gross margin). The market is sized conservatively bottom-up: a European TAM of ≈€354M/year, a DACH SAM of ≈€67.5M/year, and an Austrian beachhead SOM of ≈€400K/year in gross profit, with an Austrian CE-mark enabling direct expansion into Germany and Switzerland within the same regulatory zone. The three-year outlook projects revenue of €58.7K → €154K → €300K, turning operating-positive in Year 2 and reaching break-even in October 2027. The team seeks €50,000 to fund the ISO 10993 biocompatibility battery (≈€18K, 10–14 weeks) and the launch bridge; the cumulative cash position bottoms near −€52K before recovering.  

The immediate next steps hold a pharmacy consignment trial, measuring real reorder rate, a wear-test with 15 children, manufacturer quotes and a utility-model filing. Together, these steps move the team from stated intentions to real purchasing behavior at the shelf, ahead of a December 2026 pharmacy pilot. 

Cooperation Partner 

• ​​E&I Business Garage, Project: FlowPatch​ 

​​Contact Person​ 

• ​​Armin Gohm – armin.gohm@tuwien.ac.at 
  Vinzenz Fraiss – vinzenz.fraiss@students.ac.at 
  Lukas Erlacher – e11920569@student.tuwien.ac.at 
  Lennard Klein – lennard@brainboost-learning.com 
  Victor Generalov – victor.generalov@s.wu.ac.at 
  Andreas Gonke – e11813862@student.tuwien.ac.at​ 

Student Team 

• ​​​Armin Gohm - armin.gohm@tuwien.ac.at 
  Vinzenz Fraiss - vinzenz.fraiss@students.ac.at 
  Lukas Erlacher - e11920569@student.tuwien.ac.at 
  Lennard Klein - lennard@brainboost-learning.com 
  Victor Generalov - victor.generalov@s.wu.ac.at 
  Andreas Gonke - e11813862@student.tuwien.ac.at 
  ​​ 

Project Manager 

• ​​Diana Lauer - Diana.Lauer@wu.ac.at 

• ​Theresa Nicolussi - Theresa.Nicolussi@wu.ac.at 

• ​Dragos Vasilescu - dragos@vasilescu.pro 

• ​Caroline Kunesch - caroline.kunesch@boku.ac.at