RAPID: Realization of a Medical Cyber-Physical System to Enhance Safety of Ebola Workers

鉴于2014年埃博拉疫情是历史上规模最大的一次，而且迫切需要了解如何在正确的地点通过正确的技术干预来改善护理提供，这项快速反应研究旨在实现人在环的医疗网络-物理系统(CPS)，用于监测患者，确保遵守相关安全协议，并收集数据，以推进传染病控制的多学科研究。最终目标是通过整合实现智能和互联治疗诊所的方法和技术，将与潜在污染表面和材料的接触降至最低，从而提高埃博拉工作人员的安全。该项目可以通过使用具有成本效益的、模块化的、可重新配置的和开放设计的CPS技术来扩大现有的治疗诊所，从而影响对传染病暴发的反应。该项目将培养一批新的工程学学生、研究人员和创新者，让K-Gray、本科生和研究生参与项目的各个方面，特别是在共同思考和共同设计阶段，使他们对社会需求和国家优先事项敏感。该项目将汇集一个由工程师、科学家、技术员、医学专家和人道主义援助人员组成的多学科团队，以开发传染病控制的整体解决方案。更广泛的影响还包括通过减少对个人防护设备的需求和使用来节省治疗诊所的运营成本，并通过减少消耗来保护诸如水等资源。为了预防、检测和应对当前的埃博拉疫情和未来类似的传染病疫情，本研究计划有以下相互关联的目标：(1)提供新的知识、方法和工具，以更好地了解传染病治疗诊所的操作程序，(2)设计、实施和验证增加了医疗CPS的治疗病房，用于患者监测，(3)应用直观的控制界面和数据可视化工具，用于实际的人-机器人交互，(4)实现交易，协调和协作的共享控制技术，用于在治疗设施内安全有效地进行移动机器人导航，(5)评估医疗工作者和患者对该技术的接受度和有效性。该团队将开发一个自给自足、模块化和可重新配置的系统，该系统由用于患者监护的互联传感器网络和用于远程医疗的移动机器人平台组成，该平台将主要专注于现有标准化硬件和软件系统的互操作性和集成，以实现医疗CPS验证和验证的试验台。将聘请医疗、应急和人道主义援助专家对医务人员的用户体验和可接受性进行严格评估，以制定在治疗诊所部署该系统的途径。这一快速项目将在设计下一代人在回路中的医疗CPS方面发挥带头作用，使世界各地的卫生保健工作者能够在传染病爆发期间治疗患者。

Motivated by the fact that the 2014 Ebola outbreak is the largest in history and there is a pressing need to understand how to improve delivery of care with the right technological interventions at the right place, this Rapid Response Research is aimed at realizing a human-in-the-loop medical cyber-physical system (CPS) for monitoring patients, insuring compliance with relevant safety protocols, and collecting data for advancing multidisciplinary research on infectious disease control. The ultimate goal is to enhance safety of Ebola workers by minimizing their contact with potentially contaminated surfaces and materials through integration of methods and technologies to realize smart and connected treatment clinics. This project could impact the response to infectious disease outbreaks by augmenting existing treatment clinics with cost-effective, modular, reconfigurable and
 open-design CPS technologies. The project will train a new cadre of engineering students, researchers and innovators to be 
sensitive to societal needs and national priorities by involving K-Gray, undergraduate and graduate students in all aspects of the project, especially at the co-ideation and co-design stages. The project will bring together a multidisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, technologists, medical experts, and humanitarian aid workers to develop holistic solutions to infectious disease control. The broader impacts also include operational cost savings in treatment clinics by reducing the need and use of the personal protective equipment and preserve resources such as water by reducing consumption.In order to prevent, detect and respond to current Ebola outbreak and future similar infectious disease outbreaks, this research plan has the following interconnected aims: (1) contribute new knowledge, methods, and tools to better understand the operational procedures in an infectious disease treatment clinic, (2) design, implement and validate a treatment ward augmented with a medical CPS for patient monitoring, (3) apply intuitive control interfaces and data visualization tools for practical human-robot interaction, (4) realize traded, coordinated and collaborative shared control techniques for safe and effective mobile robot navigation inside a treatment facility, (5) assess acceptability and effectiveness of the technology among health care workers and patients. The team will develop a self-contained, modular and reconfigurable system composed of a connected sensor network for patient monitoring and a mobile robot platform for telemedicine that will primarily focus on the interoperability and integration of existing standardized 
hardware and software systems to realize a testbed for verification and validation of a medical CPS. Medical, emergency response and humanitarian aid experts will be engaged to critically assess user-experiences and acceptability among medical staff to develop pathways for fielding the system in a treatment clinic. This RAPID project will lead the way in designing the next generation of human-in-the-loop medical CPS for empowering health care workers worldwide in treating patients during infectious disease outbreaks.