Adaptive Thermal Management for Next-Generation Implantable Devices

随着电子产品尺寸的缩小和芯片系统变得更加高效、智能、复杂和功能强大，植入式医疗设备正在成为人们所期望的，在许多情况下，对于一些最严重的药物难治性（即耐药治疗）类型的慢性疾病，如帕金森病、慢性疼痛、癫痫和糖尿病，唯一可行的治疗解决方案，这些疾病的患病率在老龄化的工业社会中迅速增加。然而，随着可植入医疗设备的功能和相关复杂性的增加，对植入物周围组织的潜在热损伤成为该行业面临的新挑战，因为将生物医学植入物的周围组织暴露在高于安全极限的温度下，从长远来看会造成不可逆转的损伤，类似于长期发烧的有害影响。本项目提出的实时热管理可以使未来新兴的植入式医疗设备在功效、功能和性能方面取得显著改善，同时在设备的生命周期内为接受者提供额外的安全机制。本课题旨在为新一代高性能植入医疗器械建立自适应热管理的理论基础和应用框架。该项目包括五个主要研究组成部分：(1)创建计算高效的模型，以捕获各种类型组织的热动力学，用于植入式医疗设备的实时热管理；(2)研究植入式医疗器械在不同操作条件下的热影响，建立热建模和管理指南；(3)开发自适应热管理框架，实现高性能植入式医疗器械安全智能运行；(4)研制热管理算法综合评价试验车；(5)利用充满循环组织模拟液体的模型，在与人体及其血液灌注非常相似的环境中进行体外实验，评估所开发的模型和热管理框架。该项目将极大地促进对高性能植入式医疗器械热影响的理解，并使下一代植入式医疗器械的智能和安全操作具有越来越多的功能和相关的复杂性。此外，热管理框架可以适用于使用闭环植入式医疗设备系统来监测患者的疾病状态和调节治疗药物或刺激的输送，这是另一个强大的新兴技术领域，以及其他与热相关的应用。该项目的教育部分包括一个为多年的多学科本科研究团队设计的模型，以吸引和留住学生，并通过战略管理团队和分配任务来激发他们的研究兴趣，此外还为研究生提供研究机会和指导。

As the electronics shrink in size and system-on-chips become more efficient, smart, complex, and functionally capable, implantable medical devices are emerging as the desired, and in many cases, the only viable therapeutic solutions for some of the most serious drug refractory (i.e. resistant to treatment by medication) types of chronic illnesses, such as Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, epilepsy, and diabetes, which prevalence is rapidly increasing in the aging industrial societies. However, with increasing functionalities and associated complexities of implantable medical devices, potential thermal damage to tissues around the implants becomes a new challenge facing the industry since exposing the surrounding tissue of a biomedical implant to a temperature above the safe limits can cause irreversible damage in the long run, similar to the detrimental effects of a long lasting fever. Real-time thermal management, as proposed in this project, can enable the emerging implantable medical devices of the future to achieve significant improvement in efficacy, functionality, and performance, while providing an additional safety mechanism for the recipients in the lifetime of a device. This research project aims to establish the theoretical foundation and applied framework of adaptive thermal management for the next generation high-performance implantable medical devices with growing functionalities and associated complexities. This project consists of five main research components: (1) creating computationally efficient models to capture thermal dynamics in various types of tissues for real-time thermal management in implantable medical devices; (2) investigating the thermal impact, and establishing guidelines on thermal modeling and management for implantable medical devices under different operation conditions; (3) developing an adaptive thermal management framework that enables safe and smart operation of the high-performance implantable medical devices; (4) developing a test vehicle for comprehensive evaluation of the thermal management algorithms; and (5) evaluating the developed models and thermal management framework through in vitro experiments in an environment that closely resembles the human body and its blood perfusion using phantoms filled with circulating tissue-simulant fluids. This project will significantly advance the understanding of thermal impact of the high-performance implantable medical devices, and enable the smart and safe operation of the next-generation implantable medical devices with growing functionalities and associated complexities. In addition, the thermal management framework can be adapted to applications using closed-loop implantable medical device systems to monitor a patient's disease state and modulate the delivery of therapeutic drugs or stimuli, which is another strong emerging technical area, as well as other applications with thermal concerns. The educational components of this project comprise a model designed for a multiyear, multidisciplinary undergraduate research team to attract and retain students, and stimulate their research interests by strategically managing the team and assigning tasks to individuals, in addition to providing research opportunities and mentoring for graduate students.