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

项目摘要 美国目前有约180万例COVID-19活动病例。大多数患者正在康复， 家庭，创造了远程监控的巨大需求。目前可用于该任务的主要工具有 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，它以丰富的方式捕捉 人们呼吸，我们相信这样的生物力学信息可以是其他， 目前可用的工具。拟议的项目涉及修改我们目前的硬件和软件 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所提出的传感器系统密切相关，因为它们提供了 肺健康的衡量标准。肺活量计为整个呼吸系统提供单一测量，即，的 呼出的空气量。因为它是一个装置，一个吹空气，它很容易成为污染时， 被新冠肺炎患者使用。脉搏血氧仪非常有帮助，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，正常或高度异常的读数实现了基于家庭的监测设备的目的 在这个意义上，他们导致明确的决策时，选择主要是'留在家里'与。 "入院“然而，中级阅读可能更难解释。特别是作为治疗 选择继续增加和多样化，需要更多的数据来为决策提供信息， 我们的传感器提供的信息预计将是一个有价值的补充。通过更好地为决策提供信息， 患者管理，很容易理解所提出的传感器系统如何很好地具有挽救生命的功能。 对特定患者的影响。 我们建议开发一种快速的基于家庭的测试/诊断设备，其形式为可穿戴式远程传感器 用于生理监测。我们的超声波传感器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，并因此丰富地捕捉生物力学 与呼吸相关的运动。拟议的项目涉及将我们目前的PC大小的系统转换为 更小的，无线的，基于云的和廉价的系统，与家庭监控兼容， 开发针对COVID-19患者的算法，以更好地将传感器的丰富运动信息转换为 评估某人的疾病康复状况。初步结果表明可行性 在一年内，并在建议书中提出了商业化的途径。

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.