Portable Perfusion Monitor Team for National I-Corps Program

这个I-Corps项目基于便携式血液灌注监测仪，其更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于它有可能超越目前的血液灌注监测仪系统，进入新的市场和应用。这可能会产生重大的社会影响，因为与其他可用系统相比，该技术的成本更低，将允许进行更多的常规血液灌注监测（例如在预防医学中），这可能会改善公共健康。此外，该技术的紧凑性和便携性，沿着其相关的消除对独立诊断技术人员的需求，使得其在远程和现场位置的医疗保健应用中的使用非常可行。由于有可能接触到新的客户和应用，这项技术可以通过解决诊断医学中未满足的需求而具有颠覆性。该设备使用激光散斑成像技术，通过将低功率激光从组织反射到相机中来非侵入性地成像血流。通过快速连续地捕获几个图像并比较帧，具有相对运动的区域（在这种情况下，血流）可以在视觉上映射到组织的图像上。这种便携式灌注设备的智能优点在于，它利用处理数据的新方法来比较连续帧，这种新方法需要比现有方法低得多的计算能力。因此，可以使用小型处理器代替完整的计算机处理器，从而允许设备的小型化和材料成本的降低。此外，该装置能够在手术期间真实的实时地附接到现有的手术设备和功能，缩短了手术过程所需的时间，并提高了相关数据的及时性和质量。该设备的各种原型已经在小鼠中进行了测试，结果表明该设备能够提供详细的血流图，包括微血管。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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, based on a portable blood perfusion monitor, lies in its likelihood of reaching new markets and applications beyond current blood perfusion monitor systems. This could have a significant societal impact, as this technology's lower cost compared to other available systems will allow for more routine blood perfusion monitoring (e.g. in preventative medicine), which could improve public health. Further, the compactness and portability of this technology, along with its related elimination of the need for a standalone diagnostic technician, makes its use in healthcare applications in remote and field locations highly feasible. Due to the potential to reach new customers and applications, this technology could be disruptive by addressing unmet needs in diagnostic medicine.This I-Corps project is based around a portable blood perfusion monitor device. The device uses laser speckle imaging technology, which images blood flow non-invasively by reflecting low-power laser light off of tissue and into a camera. By capturing several images in rapid succession and comparing the frames, regions with relative motion (in this case, blood flow) can be visually mapped onto an image of the tissue. The intellectual merit of this portable perfusion device is that it utilizes a new method of processing the data to compare the sequential frames, this new method requiring substantially lower computing power than existing methods. As a result, mini-processors can be used in place of full computer processors, allowing for miniaturization of the device and reduction of the material costs. As well, the device is capable of attaching to existing surgical equipment and functions in real time during surgery, shortening time needed for the surgical process and improving timeliness and quality of associated data. Various prototypes of this device have been tested in mice, and the results demonstrate the ability of this device to provide detailed maps of blood flow, including micro-vessels.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.