Lab projects and overall focus, this page is being constructed
Projects
Automated IV insertion
One of the first steps in the diagnosis or treatment of any patient in an emergency department or urgent care setting is venous access. Most laboratory testing and medications are dependent on this crucial step that is a critical bottleneck in the flow of patients through the acute healthcare system. Automated venous access technology could allow nurses and healthcare providers to focus on difficult access patients and the multitude of other tasks that are needed. For secured venous access to be achieved the autonomous system must image or detect an appropriate vein in an extremity, insert a cannulated needle into the vein under image guidance, verify placement, advance the cannula into the vein, withdraw the needle, and then secure the cannula to the skin.
Keywords: autonomous systems, robotics, healthcare, imaging, kinematics, biomechanics, vascular access
Real time EMR/ED analytics
Real time analysis of EMR, PACS, outpatient, and bedside data streams will be integrated and provide context appropriate clinical decision support for the care of Emergency Department patients that will adapt to the progression and treatment response of the recommended interventions, with considerations to scale to continued inpatient and outpatient management. Objective outcomes that could be measured are improvement in length of stay, correlation of admission diagnosis to discharge diagnosis, workload metrics of the treatment team, and appropriate clinical metrics. The impact of this work, if able to develop significant improvements in patient care by use of local, secure, analytics in an Emergency Department could serve to improve outcomes in healthcare facilities that have chronic issues with healthcare staffing and appropriate resource allocation.
Keywords: medical analytics, Electronic Medical Record (EMR), data science, resource allocation, emergency medicine
Remote Medical Assesment
Rural and wilderness environments, including space explorations, will often have patients that are far away from medical providers. While there are several advantages to the remote environments that people choose to live in and explore this distance means that several acute medical and traumatic conditions have a higher morbidity and mortality. Reducing the time to care through autonomous medical devices, whether at remote clinics or delivered through autonomous vehicles, could improve quality of life in these places. Several appropriate technologies exist that can do semi-autonomous diagnostics and interventions, but the infrastructure and systems to deliver these tools is not mature enough for appropriate resource delivery and utilization. The goal of this work is to develop and mature devices and methods at the appropriate technology readiness level that can be integrated into care delivery systems to deliver acute medical care at remote locations. Potential applications for this work exist in human spaceflight, rural medical care, and the Indian Healthcare System.
Keywords: remote medical care, autonomous medical devices, diagnostics, remote interventions, human factors
