NSF Convergence Accelerator Track M: Distributed Flexible Strain Sensors to Enable Proprioceptive Cochlear Implant Electrodes

现代微创手术技术采用柔性且可连续变形的导管、内窥镜和电极来导航人体解剖结构的复杂绕组。然而，这些装置目前缺乏感觉反馈，并且可能由于无意的手术创伤而带来严重的并发症风险。这个融合研究项目将联合收割机多学科专业知识，使薄的可变形医疗器械，包括电极和导管，这将检测自己的变形，并通过生物启发的方法合成有临床意义的数据解释。该项目将其重点缩小到一个单一的应用：人工耳蜗植入（CI），以解决听力损失（HL），这是我们老龄化社会中的一个普遍问题，也是痴呆症和抑郁症的主要原因。这项研究旨在改善CI手术的结局和安全性，帮助减轻HL患者的负担和费用，并促进美国公众的健康和福利。在这项研究中开发的系统和方法可以应用于未来的其他外科手术，以使更大部分的美国公众产生积极的影响。这项研究的最终成果将是实现一种灵活的薄膜分布式应变传感器阵列，并附带机器学习模型，以便在与CI电极配对时提取具有临床意义的数据。该项目遵循融合研究方法，结合多个观点和学科，考虑外科领域的需求以及工程和设计的机会。此外，该传感器系统的设计可无缝集成到CI中，而不会增加植入物的体积或刚度，因此该系统可与外科医生多年来一直使用的传统植入物和技术进行互操作。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Modern minimally-invasive surgical techniques employ flexible and continuously deformable catheters, endoscopes, and electrodes to navigate the complex windings of human anatomy. However, these devices currently lack sensory feedback and can carry a significant risk of complications due to inadvertent surgical trauma. This convergence research project will combine multidisciplinary expertise to enable thin deformable medical instruments, including electrodes and catheters, which will detect their own deformation and synthesize clinically-meaningful interpretations of the data via a bio-inspired approach. This project narrows its focus to a single application: cochlear implants (CIs) to address hearing loss (HL), a widespread problem in our aging society, which is also a leading cause of dementia and depression. This research aims to improve outcomes and safety of CI surgery, help relieve the burden and costs of HL to patients, and advance the health and welfare of the American public. The systems and methods developed in this research can be applied to additional surgical procedures in the future to enable a positive impact for an even larger portion of the American public. The culmination of this research will be to realize a flexible thin-film distributed strain sensor array with accompanying machine learning models to extract clinically-meaningful data when paired with a CI electrode. The project follows a convergence research approach to incorporate multiple viewpoints and disciplines, considering the needs in the surgical field and the opportunities in engineering and design. Furthermore, the sensor system is designed to be seamlessly integrated into CIs without adding any extra bulk or stiffness to the implant, thus making the system interoperable with the traditional implants and techniques that surgeons have been using for years.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.