PFI-TT: Optimization of a portable blood flow monitor for improving reconstructive surgery operations and recovery

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，通过一种负担得起的方法在手术期间和术后对进出手术部位的血流进行持续监测，从而改善患者的护理和结果。由于传统的外科血流监测系统体积庞大且价格昂贵，本项目中采用的方法允许使用一种紧凑且负担得起的设备，有可能为外科医生和患者提供服务。拟议的系统将增加重建整形手术中使用的血流监测设备的使用，并有可能扩展到其他应用，如压疮监测和/或军事医学中普遍存在的野战应用。拟议的技术可能会导致目前由于延迟诊断手术中有足够的血流量而导致的后续、矫正手术较少。通过节省成本和提高医院内部的生产率，更广泛的社会影响和商业利益将使患者受益，并提高医疗系统的质量和吞吐量。拟议的项目解决了重建整形外科的主要折衷方案，减少了外科医生对手术重建的组织瓣在手术本身和术后患者恢复期间都有足够的血流量的不确定性。这降低了医院的成本，因为减少了纠正血液流动不足的皮瓣所需的未报销的后续和矫正外科手术的数量。研究目标是：提高外科医生或术后患者支持护士的成像深度和相关信息质量；提高成像系统的稳定性，以便更好地做出手术决策；以及开发与终端用户(重建外科医生)一起了解市场发现的用户界面，最终目标是生产一种改进的便携式血流灌注监测仪原型，以实现测试和商业化进程。实现这些目标的方法包括实施成像系统稳定战略，增加成像深度以查看更深的(表面下)血管和组织中的流动，以及开发一个根据客户发现的信息为外科医生提供首选格式的手术部位血流信息的用户界面。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is the improvement in patient care and outcomes resulting from an affordable way to perform continuous monitoring of blood flow to and from a surgical site both during and post-surgery. As conventional surgical blood flow monitoring systems are bulky and expensive, the approach taken in this project allows for a compact and affordable device with the potential to serve surgeons and patients alike. The proposed system will increase the use of blood flow monitoring devices for use in reconstructive plastic surgery, with potential to spread to other applications, such as bedsores monitoring and/or field applications prevalent in military medicine. The proposed technology may result in fewer follow-up, corrective surgeries presently caused by delayed diagnosis of sufficient blood flow during surgery. The broader societal impact and commercial benefit, through cost savings and productivity gains within hospitals, will benefit patients and improve the quality and throughput of the medical system. The proposed project addresses a primary compromise in reconstructive plastic surgery by reducing the uncertainty of surgeons that surgically reconstructed tissue flaps have adequate blood flow both during both the operation itself and post-op patient recovery. This reduces hospitals' costs by decreasing the number of unreimbursed follow-up, corrective surgical procedures required to correct flaps experiencing inadequate blood flow. The research objectives are to: improve depth of imaging and related quality of information to the surgeon or post-op patient support nurse; improve imaging system stabilization, enabling better surgical decision-making; and develop a user interface informed by market discovery with end users (reconstructive surgeons), with the ultimate goal of producing an improved prototype portable perfusion monitor to enable testing and progress towards commercialization. The methods to accomplish these goals include implementation of imaging system stabilization strategies, increased depth-of-imaging to see deeper (sub-surface) blood vessels and flow in tissue, and development of a user interface informed by customer discovery which provides surgeons with surgical site blood flow information in their preferred format.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.