In collaboration with Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health System, students at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., developed a computer system that allows monitors and other tools in the operating room to communicate and automatically respond if a patient's vital signs change, according to the university.
The students are led by Philip Asare, PhD, a professor in electrical and computer engineering, and are also collaborating with Villanova University and the Department of Perioperative Medicine in the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, in addition to Geisinger.
The computer system allows devices made by different manufacturers to communicate with one another and can automatically order devices to change course to help a patient.
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"Let's say the patient monitor is sensing heartbeat and blood pressure. If there's a sudden change in blood pressure, the system is going to see that change. When it drops below a certain limit that we've programmed, the system will change the function of the IV pump to either pump medicine faster or stop the infusion, and then alert the doctor if necessary," Win Kyaw, an electrical engineering student at Bucknell, explained.
Overall, the computer system is designed to relieve some of the burden on physicians who have to monitor various devices during surgery. "Automation reduces the burden and allows them to concentrate on the important stuff and work with the system to get the job done," said Dr. Asare. "And that increases patient safety."
The research is supported by the Bucknell-Geisinger Research Initiative grant, and the students are collaborating with Geisinger physicians to make sure the computer system would be beneficial.
"They've given us a lot of feedback about what we've done so far, the types of user interfaces that they want to see in the long run, and the need that our project is moving toward filling," Caitlin Mahoney, a markets, innovation and design major at Bucknell, said.
Find more information on the project here.