Image Guided Therapy Center - Ultrasound-based sensor system for the monitoring of COVID-19 patients

项目总结 目前，美国约有180万例活跃的新冠肺炎案例。这些患者中的大多数正在康复中。 家庭，产生了对远程监控的巨大需求。目前可用于该任务的主要工具包括 体温计、脉搏血氧计和肺活量计，用于监测体温、血氧水平和肺活量， 分别进行了分析。我们开发了一种基于超声波的传感器系统，它以丰富的方式捕获 人类呼吸，我们相信这样的生物力学信息可以作为其他信息的重要补充， 当前可用的工具。拟议的项目涉及修改我们现有的硬件和软件 传感器系统，使其与基于家庭的监控兼容，更具体地说，通过使其更小， 无线、基于云且价格低廉。 脉搏血氧计和肺活量计与拟议的传感器系统密切相关，因为它们提供了 衡量肺部健康的指标。肺活量计提供对整个呼吸系统的单一测量，即 呼出的气量。因为它是一种向里面吹空气的装置，当它被污染时 由新冠肺炎患者使用。脉搏血氧仪非常有用，因为它们测量的参数是 肺功能的核心，即将脱氧血红蛋白转化为氧合血红蛋白的能力。用于肺活量计 和脉搏血氧计，正常或高度异常读数满足家庭监护设备的目的 从这个意义上说，当选择主要是留在家里还是 “入院”。然而，中级读数可能更难解读。尤其是作为治疗 选择继续增加和多样化，将需要更多的数据来为决策提供信息，以及生物力学 我们的传感器提供的信息有望成为有价值的补充。通过更好地向 患者管理，很容易理解拟议的传感器系统如何能够很好地拯救生命 对特定患者的影响。 我们建议开发一种基于家庭的快速测试/诊断设备，其形式为可穿戴式远程传感器 用于生理监测。我们基于超声波的传感器在不同的位置监测组织的速度和位移 组织深度，在躯干上多达四个不同的位置，因此丰富地捕捉到了生物力学 与呼吸有关的运动。建议的项目包括将我们目前的PC大小的系统转换为 体积更小、无线、基于云且价格低廉的系统，与基于家庭的监控兼容，并且 开发专门针对新冠肺炎患者的算法，以更好地将传感器中丰富的运动信息转化为 对某人从疾病中恢复的情况进行评估。初步结果表明是可行的 在一年内，并在提案中提出了一条商业化的道路。

Project summary There are currently ~1.8 million active cases of COVID-19 in the US. Most of these patients are recovering at home, creating immense needs for remote monitoring. The main tools currently available for the task are thermometers, pulse oximeters and spirometers, to monitor temperature, blood oxygen level and lung capacity, respectively. We developed an ultrasound-based sensor system that captures in rich manner the way in which people breathe, and we believe that such biomechanical information can be an important complement to other, currently available tools. The proposed project involves modifying the hardware and software of our current sensor system to make it compatible with home-based monitoring, more specifically by making it smaller, wireless, cloud-based and inexpensive. Pulse oximeters and spirometers are closely related to the proposed sensor system in that they offer a measure of lung health. Spirometers provide a single measurement for the entire respiratory system, i.e., the volume of air exhaled. Because it is a device that one blows air into, it readily becomes contaminated when used by COVID-19 patients. Pulse oximeters are very helpful in the sense that they measure a parameter at the core of lung function, i.e., the ability to convert deoxyhemoglobins into oxyhemoglobins. For spirometers and pulse oximeters, normal or highly abnormal readings fulfill the purpose of a home-based monitoring device in the sense that they lead to clear decision making when the options are primarily ‘remaining at home’ vs. ‘hospital admission’. Intermediate readings, however, can be more difficult to interpret. Especially as treatment options continue to increase and diversify, more data will be needed to inform decisions, and biomechanical information as provided by our sensors is expected to be a valuable addition. By better informing decisions on patient management, it is easy to appreciate how the proposed sensor system might very well have life-saving effects in given patients. We propose to develop a rapid home-based testing/diagnostics device, in the form of wearable remote sensors for physiological monitoring. Our ultrasound-based sensors monitor tissue velocity and displacement at various tissue depths, at up to four separate locations on the torso, and as such richly captures the biomechanical motion associated with breathing. The proposed project involves converting our current PC-sized system into a smaller, wireless, cloud-based and inexpensive system compatible with home-based monitoring, and to develop algorithms specific to COVID-19 patients to better convert the rich motion information the sensors provide into an assessment of one’s state of recovery from the disease. Preliminary results suggest feasibility within one year, and a path to commercialization is presented in the proposal.