I-Corps: Portable Hands Free Medical Suction Device for Combat and Emergency Medicine

在紧急情况下，急救人员的首要任务是建立和维持病人的气道。一旦建立了气道，急救人员就会确定任何出血的位置并止住失血。急救人员能多快多有效地完成这些任务往往决定了病人存活的可能性。对于响应者在远程位置处理的场景尤其如此。熟练的干预措施往往对实际或即将发生气道损伤和/或出血的患者的生存产生关键影响。在最好的情况下，创建、管理和维持气道并停止失血是困难的。如果没有设备齐全的医院，手术或应对会产生额外的独特和复杂的挑战。急诊护理提供者缺乏医院通常提供的一些先进的救生工具，如大功率吸痰，这些工具在现场对患者作出反应时可能无法获得或有效。在更危险的环境中，如军事行动中，密闭空间和敌对行动限制了对受伤士兵进行人工气道或辅助通气干预的能力。因此，开发一种功能强大、重量轻、手持式的真空吸入装置，将大大提高军医清理和维持士兵气道的能力，以及清理伤口和止血的能力。对于大多数分诊损伤来说，能够进行间歇性但有效的吸痰可以大大增加存活的机会，直到可以应用更高水平的紧急护理。吸痰是一种关键但简单有效的方法，可以清理和维持紧急气道，或让急救人员在充满碎片的伤口中找到出血的来源。但是，尽管抽吸对挽救病人的生命至关重要，但由于缺乏足够的工具，在偏远的医疗环境中，它仍然是最困难的功能之一。因此，这个I-Corps团队的最终目标是制作原型，测试和准备制造用于紧急气道管理和出血控制的便携式吸引装置。正在开发的设备旨在取代目前市场上的设备，这些设备在有效性，便携性，吸力和颗粒去除方面都不令人满意。实验室正在进行的工作导致了早期的设计，并且吸吸装置的持续发展将大大提高应急响应人员和军事提供者护理重伤患者的能力。继续开展的工作将包括开发和实施设计反馈和控制系统，以满足紧急护理的需要并确保患者安全。这个拟议的项目将提供一个系统的市场研究和定义设备性能规格。此外，将客户反馈纳入工程设计过程，以确保最终产品将是客户的最佳解决方案。最后，流体动力学分析、数学建模、验证和确认将被应用，以确保设备对人类使用的有效性和安全性，并确保设备预成型达到规格中概述的水平。

During emergency situations the primary priority of a responder is to create and maintain a patient's airway. Once an airway has been established the responder then works to determine the location of any hemorrhages and staunch the blood loss. How quickly and efficiently a responder can accomplish these tasks often determines the probability of survival of the patient. This is especially true for scenarios where a responder is dealing in a remote location. Skilled interventions often make the critical difference in survival for patients with actual or impending airway compromise and/or hemorrhaging. Creating, managing, and maintaining an airway in combination with stopping blood loss are difficult in the best of situations. An operation or response where a well-equipped hospital is not available generates additional layers of unique and complex challenges. Emergency care providers lack some of the advanced life saving tools normally available in hospitals such as high-powered suction, which may not be available or effective when responding to patients in the field. In even more hazardous environments such as during military operations, the confined spaces and hostile action limit the ability to intervene with an artificial airway or assisted ventilation for wounded soldiers. Therefore, the development of a powerful, lightweight, handheld vacuum suction device would greatly enhance the ability of a military medic to clear and maintain a soldier's airway, as well as the ability to clear wounds and stop bleeding. For most triage injuries the ability to have intermittent but effective suctioning increases the chance of survival significantly until a higher level of emergency care can be applied.Suction is a critical yet simple and effective way to clear and maintain an emergency airway, or allow a responder to locate the source of a hemorrhage in debris filled wound. But, despite how critical suction is to saving patients, it remains one of the most difficult functions to perform in remote medical environments due to the lack of adequate tools. Therefore, the ultimate goal for this I-Corps team is to prototype, test, and prepare for manufacture a portable suction device for use in emergency airway management and hemorrhage control. The device under development is intended to replace current devices on the market, which are unsatisfactory in terms of effectiveness, portability, suction power, and particulate removal. Ongoing work in the lab has led to early designs, and the continued development of a suction device would greatly enhance the ability of emergency responders and military providers to care for critically wounded patients. Continued work will consist of development and implementation of a design feedback and control system to meet the needs of emergency care and ensure patient safety. This proposed project will provide a systematic marketing study and define device performance specifications. In addition, incorporation of customer feedback will be blended with the engineering design process to ensure that the final product will be the best solution for the customer. Finally, fluid dynamic analysis, mathematical modeling, and verification and validation will be applied to ensure the efficacy and safety of the device for human use, and to ensure that the device preforms to the level that will be outlined in the specifications.