Physician-Inspired Medical Device Solutions
With the goal of engaging graduate students and accelerating ideas
into prototypes, teams of MIT graduate students in Electrical Engineering and
Mechanical Engineering spend a semester collaborating with clinicians in
CIMIT-affiliated hospitals to develop innovative medical devices. Clinicians
(physicians, nurses, and scientists) present clinical problems and initial
ideas on how they might be solved. Students form teams to work with the
clinicians to turn these ideas into reality. The goal is for the students to
deliver a working prototype and a journal-quality article in one semester. The
course has been a great opportunity for clinicians to test out new ideas and to
stimulate new collaborations. For example, Robopsy, a robotic device to assist
radiologists performing tumor biopsies was invented by an MIT team led by Rajiv
Gupta, MD, in 2004. The team has been awarded the 2007 MIT $100K prize, the
world's leading entrepreneurship competition. Join us March 4 and 11 to hear
from the teams of 2007.
Moderator: Hong Ma, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Instructor,
2.996/6.971 Biomedical Devices Design Course,
Physician/Student Teams:
GRIT Chair Alarm
Lauren Kattany, RN, Clinical Nurse Specialist,
Students: Heather Knight, Jae-Kyu Lee
The
Gesture Recognition Interactive Technology (GRIT) Chair Alarm aims to improve
the state-of-the-art of chair and wheelchair alarms to prevent falls for
patients at risk by recognizing the gesture of a patient attempting to stand.
Patient falls are one of the greatest causes of injury in hospitals. Due to
recent changes in medical insurance rules, hospitals may no longer be
reimbursed for fall-related injury, which means that hospitals must act quickly
to expand patient fall prevention measures. Existing chair and bed exit alarm
systems are inadequate because of insufficient notification, high false-alarm
rate, and long trigger delays. The GRIT chair alarm uses an array of proximity
sensors and pressure sensors to create a map of the patient’s sitting position,
and then uses gesture recognition algorithms to determine when a patient is
attempting to stand up. The system responds with light and voice alarms that
can encourage the patient to remain seated and/or to make use of the system’s
integrated nurse-call function. The team's solution can be seamlessly
integrated into existing hospital WiFi network, sending messages to the nurse
call system as well as providing the patient’s location. These technologies
could also be expanded to monitor patient activity in other medical settings
and emergent applications.
SmartPad – A Wireless,
Stickerless EKG System
Rob Sheridan, MD, Chief, Burn Surgery Service, Shriners Hospital for
Children; Co-Director, Sumner Redstone Adult Burn Unit, Massachusetts General
Hospital, rsheridan@partners.org
Students: Fred Chen, Pei-Lan Hsu, Brad Stronger, Henry Wu, Hong Ma
During an operation, the
patient's vital signs are displayed in the operating room so that doctors can
monitor them. In order to obtain the data, adhesive electrodes are applied to
the patient, and wires are run from the patient to the display monitors. The
large number of wires attached to the patient inhibits the medical team's
access to the patient, and the adhesive can fail in adverse conditions.
Additionally, electrodes are often placed on the arms, legs, or back due to
trauma in the ideal locations, especially for burn victims.
To help doctors more efficiently treat their patients, this team presents the
SmartPad: a device that displays a patient's electrocardiogram (EKG) signal
without adhesives or wires. Instead, sensors are bonded to a foam mat, on
which the patient lies during the operation. Software scans through the
redundant array of sensors and selects the optimal set for each patient's size
and position. One is able to display an EKG waveform which, while inferior to a
cardiologist's EKG, is sufficient for the doctor to monitor the patient's
health.
View
this presentation
Hand-held Endotracheal
Tube Placement Sensor
Rob Sheridan, MD, Chief, Burn Surgery Service, Shriners Hospital for
Children; Co-Director, Sumner Redstone Adult Burn Unit, Massachusetts General
Hospital, rsheridan@partners.org
Students: Keith Durand, Byron Hsu, Brandon Pierquet, Warit Wichakool
The
endotracheal tube (ETT) is ubiquitous in hospitals. Placing the tube at the
correct location in the throat requires a high level of skill and training, and
it is secured in place with a variety of tape or tie systems. Unplanned
displacement of the tube can result in patient death and emergency reintubation
is difficult. Constant bedside supervision can be done but is impractical. Currently,
there are no economical and convenient means of verifying the tube’s position
in a patient’s throat. This team has developed a hand-held ETT placement
sensor, which is a portable device that allows a doctor or nurse to “see” the
tube’s position in the throat. The device uses a two-dimensional array of Giant
Magnetoresistance (GMR) sensors to localize the position of a tiny magnet
embedded into the ETT. As the sensor is held over the sternal notch, the sensor
unit measures a magnetic filed strength underneath the sensing area. An
on-board microprocessor displays an intuitive, color-coded map on an LCD
screen. The device provides a real-time information for locating the tube
position. In addition, the device is designed to fit comfortably into a hand or
pocket and run off an internal rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. An
integrated wireless module allows the device to be adapted for continuous
monitoring and automated notification of hospital staff if a potential problem
is detected.