Designing of Optical Devices for Biomedical Applications: A Study on IV Drip Rate Monitoring Device

Addition of biotelemetry in the field of bio-medical engineering is a useful method for improving the efficiency of the healthcare professionals. Thus it is necessary to develop devices that can improve the connectivity of the system. Optical devices have a huge application in this field. Simple optical devices can be used for the purpose of object detection, checking the optical density of samples. Intravenous infusion rate can be measured using drip rate monitorig device. A wireless drip rate monitoring device has been developed. This device incorporates the use of Light Emitting Diode (LED) and Light Dependant Resistor (LDR) to detect the drops. A mountable clasp system was used to mount the sensor on the drip chamber. Using microcontroller, the device calculates the drip rate and the Xbee communication module wirelessly notifies the centralized monitoring station whenever the drip rate crosses the desired range. A Network was developed using the Xbee Radio Modules to transmit the message to the central monitoring station. This adds feasibility and mobility in the system thus, increasing the efficiency of the healthcare professionals

Bio-Inspired Micromachined Volumetric Flow Sensor with a Big Dynamic Range for Intravenous Systems

Real-time monitoring of drug delivery in an intravenous infusion system can prevent injury caused by improper drug doses. As the medicine must be administered into the vein at different rates and doses in different people, an ideal intravenous infusion system requires both a low flow rate and large dynamic range monitoring. In this study, a bio-inspired and micromachined volumetric flow sensor is presented for the biomedical application of an intravenous system. This was realized by integrating two sensing units with different sensitivities on one silicon die to achieve a large dynamic range of the volumetric flow rate. The sensor was coated with a parylene layer for waterproofing and biocompatibility purposes. A new packaging scheme incorporating a silicon die into a flow channel was employed to demonstrate the working prototype. The test results indicate that the sensor can detect a volumetric flow rate as low as 2 mL/h, and its dynamic range is from 2 mL/h to 200 mL/h. The sensor performed better than the other two commercial sensors for low-flow detection. The high sensitivity, low cost, and small size of this flow sensor make it promising for intravenous applications

New Product Development Processes for IOT-Enabled Home Use Medical Devices: A Systematic Review

Background: In the new forefront of healthcare at patients’ homes, medical devices developed to use at home setting by lay users are essential. The adoption of home-use medical devices will benefit both patients and public healthcare services in terms of quality of life, enhanced outcomes, and reduced cost of care. Home use medical devices associated with Internet-Of-Things (IOT) technology assists patients in performing self-care as well as providing health information remotely to health care professionals. However, adopting technology requires understanding the nature of the medical device and medical device development (MDD). Existing studies concerning the new product development (NPD) processes or design processes were systematically reviewed to explore knowledge and expertise to provide a framework for IOT engineers or designers to adopt IOT technology to home use medical devices. Objective: This study aimed to review the published literature to explore the current studies in the field of the NPD process, design process, design methodology, and outcome of the device affecting user acceptance. Methods: A systematic review following PRISMA guidelines of the English language literature from four electronic databases and academic search engines published from 2007 to 2018 was conducted. The papers were screened and assessed following predefined inclusive and exclusive criteria. The results were analyzed according to the research questions. Results: The findings revealed state-of-the-art in the NPD process and design process (n=4), the design methodology (n=23), and the resultant outcomes of empirical or clinical research in the validation stage (n=14) of medical device development (MDD). The findings also delineated existing studies in NPD, design process, and design methodologies aimed to ensure that medical devices would be effective and safe. Human factor engineering (HFE), cognitive method, ethnographic, and other methodologies were proposed to understand users, uses and context of use. Barriers, constraints, and multidisciplinary communication were addressed. Tools, processes, and methodologies were proposed to overcome the barriers. Conclusion: As home-use medical device development (MDD) and the adoption of IOT technology is now at a crossroads. This study addresses the necessity for future academic studies related to IOT adoption to MDD, including unique risks, multidisciplinary problems, emerging from IOT technology. Finally, future studies aimed at fabricating the NPD process or design process for IOT home-use medical devices to gain user acceptance were outlined

A Security Analysis of Cyber-Physical Systems Architecture for Healthcare

This paper surveys the available system architectures for cyber-physical systems. Several candidate architectures are examined using a series of essential qualities for cyber-physical systems for healthcare. Next, diagrams detailing the expected functionality of infusion pumps in two of the architectures are analyzed. The STRIDE Threat Model is then used to decompose each to determine possible security issues and how they can be addressed. Finally, a comparison of the major security issues in each architecture is presented to help determine which is most adaptable to meet the security needs of cyber-physical systems in healthcare

Integrated anaesthesia software : data acquisition, controlled infusion schemes and intelligent alarms

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Biomédica. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201

The Internet of Hackable Things

The Internet of Things makes possible to connect each everyday object to the Internet, making computing pervasive like never before. From a security and privacy perspective, this tsunami of connectivity represents a disaster, which makes each object remotely hackable. We claim that, in order to tackle this issue, we need to address a new challenge in security: education

Prototyping Closed Loop Physiologic Control With the Medical Device Coordination Framework

Medical devices historically have been monolithic units – developed, validated, and approved by regulatory authorities as standalone entities. Despite the fact that modern medical devices increasingly incorporate connectivity mechanisms that enable device data to be streamed to electronic health records and displays that aggregate data from multiple devices, connectivity is not being leveraged to allow an integrated collection of devices to work together as a single system to automate clinical work flows. This is due, in part, to current regulatory policies which prohibit such interactions due to safety concerns. In previous work, we proposed an open source middleware framework and an accompanying model-based development environment that could be used to quickly implement medical device coordination applications – enabling a “systems of systems” paradigm for medical devices. Such a paradigm shows great promise for supporting many applications that increase both the safety and effectiveness of medical care as well as the efficiency of clinical workflows. In this paper, we report on our experience using our Medical Device Coordination Framework (MDCF) to carry out a rapid prototyping of one such application – a multi-device medical system that uses closed loop physiologic control to a affect better patient outcomes for Patient Controlled Anelgesic (PCA) pumps

Real-time locating systems (RTLS) in healthcare: a condensed primer

Real-time locating systems (RTLS, also known as real-time location systems) have become an important component of many existing ubiquitous location aware systems. While GPS (global positioning system) has been quite successful as an outdoor real-time locating solution, it fails to repeat this success indoors. A number of RTLS technologies have been used to solve indoor tracking problems. The ability to accurately track the location of assets and individuals indoors has many applications in healthcare. This paper provides a condensed primer of RTLS in healthcare, briefly covering the many options and technologies that are involved, as well as the various possible applications of RTLS in healthcare facilities and their potential benefits, including capital expenditure reduction and workflow and patient throughput improvements. The key to a successful RTLS deployment lies in picking the right RTLS option(s) and solution(s) for the application(s) or problem(s) at hand. Where this application-technology match has not been carefully thought of, any technology will be doomed to failure or to achieving less than optimal results