I-Corps: Autonomous smart Intravenous (IV) Pole that follows patients to reduce falls and collisions

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发智能静脉注射杆，以帮助防止患者在医院摔倒。在病人的房间里，相对较大比例的跌倒与静脉注射杆有关，这带来了严重的风险。该解决方案在医院和长期护理机构都有潜在的应用，在这些地方会发生静脉注射杆相关的跌倒。患者跌倒影响了100万住院患者，每年给美国医疗服务提供者造成500亿美元的损失。医院跌倒是“绝不可能发生的事件”，不会被医疗保险和医疗补助服务中心报销。此外，更严重的跌倒会导致更长的住院时间，并可能导致其他并发症，如感染风险增加。利用拟议的解决方案还可以为医院带来其他切实的好处，因为它可以改善医院的安全评级和患者体验。这个I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种智能静脉注射杆装置，它与目前市场上的产品版本根本不同，可以降低医院和其他医疗机构摔倒的风险。该产品基于人工智能的特性可以消除与当前IV极相关的多种风险。该团队之前的研究表明，70%和23%的跌倒，分别是在去洗手间和绕着床走的过程中，都与静脉注射杆有关。受试者-环境-设备/家具相互作用导致的患者被迫姿势改变被认为是引发跌倒的关键决定因素。当连接到静脉注射杆时，运动包括持续的推、拉和其他被迫的姿势变化，这引入了与跌倒起始相关的不稳定的生物力学力。使用拟议的技术解决方案消除了由静脉注射杆强迫的姿势变化，释放了患者的双手来执行任务，并且可以同时使用助行器或轮椅，以及其他安全改进。一项针对年轻、健康受试者的初步研究表明，在步态速度和躯干倾斜方面有了实质性的改善——这两个因素与跌倒有关。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 I-Corps project is the development of a smart intravenous (IV) pole to help prevent patients from falling in the hospital. A relatively large percentage of falls in a patient’s room are associated with the IV pole, which introduces a serious risk. The solution has potential applications in both hospitals and long-term care facilities, where IV pole-associated falls occur. Patient falls affect one million hospitalized patients and cost US care providers $50 billion annually. Hospital falls are “Never Events” that are not reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In addition, more serious falls result in longer length of stay and may cause additional complications such as the increased risk of infections. The utilization of the proposed solution also may provide other tangible benefits to hospitals as it may improve the safety rating of hospitals, and the patient experience. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a smart intravenous IV pole device that is fundamentally different from the versions of this product currently in the market that may reduce the risk of falls at hospitals and other healthcare settings. The artificial intelligence-based features of this product may eliminate multiple risks associated with the current IV poles. Previous studies by the team show that 70 and 23 percent of all fall initiations, in a trip to the bathroom and around the bed respectively, are associated with the IV pole. Patients’ forced postural changes resulting from subject-environment-equipment/furniture interactions were identified as a key determinant of fall initiations. Movement, while attached to an IV pole, involves constant pushing, pulling, and other forced postural changes, which introduce destabilizing biomechanical forces associated with fall initiations. Using the proposed technology solution eliminates postural changes forced by the IV pole, releases both hands of a patient for conducting tasks, and enables simultaneous use of a walker or wheelchair, among other safety improvements. A preliminary study with young, healthy subjects shows a substantial improvement in gait speed and trunk lean – two factors associated with falls.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.