The IV-Buddy

无论何时通过输液管将液体注入体内，都应对输液管进行监测，以避免空气栓塞或形成可能阻塞管道的血液凝块。这通常是由医院护士和救护车护理人员凝视点滴室完成的。对于动脉中的导管(X射线下可见的细管)干预，持续输液对于防止血液在导管内凝结非常重要，市场上没有合适的产品来监测血流。血流中断，即使只有一分钟，也可能导致血栓，导致严重残疾或死亡。移动卒中单元慈善机构的医生和护理人员以及发明的创始人认识到，需要一种简单的设备，可以在救护车上和医院里用于脑部和心脏手术。我们的发明，IV-Buddy，如果流入人体的滴管停止流动，就会自动发出警报。IV-Buddy有一种新颖的传感器技术，可以在输液过程中提高患者的安全性。有了IV-Buddy，宝贵的护理时间不需要花费在反复检查滴管室上。输液泵可能会被使用，但它们昂贵、操作繁琐、不易获得，也不能用于导管干预。我们易于使用的IV-Buddy将提高患者的安全性，特别是在输液泵稀缺的低资源环境中。IV-Buddy还有其他应用。陆军医务人员得知这一新工具时非常兴奋，这种工具可以在疏散士兵时或在大规模伤亡事件中拯救生命。其他应用包括家庭输液和透析、献血或在医院和救护车上运送病人。有了IV-Buddy，在输液泵过于昂贵的贫穷国家，液体监测成为可能。IV-Buddy的创新之处在于：\*市场上没有这样的设备，\*它通过自动提醒临床医生问题来降低患者的风险，\*它使用简单，\*它的成本很低，使它广泛负担得起。这笔赠款将资助技术设计，以纳入用户在看到我们早期的原型后所要求的产品扩展。我们还将获得获得监管批准所需的临床试验(在救护车和导管实验室)的信息和计划。在此次拨款期间开发的IV-Buddy的改进版本将作为其新功能评估的一部分进行原型制作，并在模拟环境中进行测试，以评估其安全性。

Whenever fluid is given into the body via a dripline, the dripline should be monitored to avoid air embolism or formation of blood clots that can block the tubing. This is conventionally done by hospital nurses and ambulance paramedics peering at the drip chambers. For catheter (thin tubes visible under X-rays) interventions in arteries, where continuous administration of fluids is important to keep the blood from clotting within the catheters, there is nothing suitable on the market to monitor flow. Interruption of flow, even for only a minute, can lead to blood clots that can result in severe disability or death.Doctors and paramedics of The Mobile Stroke Unit Charity, together with founders of Nvention, identified the need for a simple device that can be used on ambulances and in hospitals for operations in the brain and heart. Our invention, the IV-Buddy, automatically sounds an alarm if flow within a drip line into the body stops. The IV-Buddy has a novel sensor technology that leads to increased patient safety during infusions. With the IV-Buddy, valuable nursing time does not need to be spent repeatedly inspecting drip chambers.Infusion pumps could potentially be used, but they are expensive, cumbersome to handle, not readily available and not usable for catheter interventions. Our easy to use IV-Buddy will improve patient safety, especially in low-resource settings where infusion pumps are scarce.The IV-Buddy has other applications. Army medics were excited to learn of this new tool that saves lives while evacuating soldiers, or during mass casualty events. Other applications include home infusion and dialysis, blood donation or patient transport in hospitals and ambulances. With the IV-Buddy, fluid monitoring becomes possible in poorer countries where infusion pumps are too expensive.The IV-Buddy is innovative as:\* there is no such device on the market,\* it lowers the risk to patients by automatically alerting the clinician of a problem,\* it is simple to use,\* it can be low cost, making it widely affordable.This grant will fund technical design to incorporate product extensions requested by users after seeing our earlier prototype. We will also obtain information on and plan for the clinical trials (in the ambulance and catheter lab) needed to gain regulatory approval.The improved version of the IV-Buddy developed during this grant will be prototyped as part of the evaluation of its new features and tested in a simulated environment to evaluate its safety.