A democratized open-source platform for medical device troubleshooting

Sabia Zehra Abidi; Victor Suturin; Robert Lee Read; Nathaniel Bechard

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division (DELOS) Technical Session 6: Online, Remote, and VIrtual Labs
Tagged Division: Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division (DELOS)
Page Count: 18
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42386
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42386
Download Count: 318

Paper Authors

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Sabia Zehra Abidi Rice University orcid.org/0000-0002-4160-0075

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Sabia Abidi is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the bioengineering department at Rice University and teaches courses in Systems Physiology, Troubleshooting of Clinical Lab Equipment, and Senior Design. Abidi has a doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas, Austin and completed postdoctoral research at NYU School of Medicine and MIT. Her research interests include experimentation of new classroom methods to encourage student curiosity, engagement and knowledge retention.

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Victor Suturin Monash University

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Robert Lee Read Public Invention

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Robert L. Read, PhD, founded Public Invention in 2019, 35 years after first being inspired to do so by Buckminster Fuller. He is a professional computer programmer and manager, an amateur scientist, physicist, mathematician, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. He speaks Esperanto fluently. He hopes that 20 years from now you will be able to go to a party and say, “I’m a Public Inventor” and have everyone know what that means. Email: . Twitter: @robertleeread

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Nathaniel Bechard

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how access to medical device R&D resources, including ventilators, is essential for new biomedical engineering teams to succeed in getting their ideas noticed, securing funding, and ultimately providing their products to patients. Equally, early coursework exposure of future developers and clinical users of such technology is an important criterion for the generation of future ideas and progress of intensive care medicine. The pandemic has created student recognition of the global need for critical respiratory care, motivating hands-on educational kits based around sophisticated medical devices, which are scarce and not easily affordable for most universities. To help meet this need, we developed an open-source medical ventilator education platform, intentionally transparent in nature. The mechanical design specifically aimed to be simultaneously visible to a group of about eight students in a group classroom teaching scenario. A working prototype of the platform was constructed and tested, achieving Pressure-Controlled-Ventilation (PCV) mode medical functionality typically provided by expensive ICU ventilators. Via a plastic test lung, the platform is capable of teaching principles of pulmonology and basic respiratory therapy. It can also be used for advanced mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, bioengineering, and computer programming projects. To effectively democratize this technology, a high degree of modularity supports unique changes or extensions in the hardware and software design by local manufacturers, research labs, or upper-class bioengineering capstone projects. The technology licenses allow any engineering or research group to build and/or modify one without a fee or legal encumbrance. Design principles that make it good for hands-on training also make it easy to build, modify, and service, making it ideal for graduate research labs or low-and-middle income countries. We implemented a pilot study of educational utility in a bioengineering troubleshooting class at Rice University with a cohort of 12 students. Eight troubleshooting classroom exercises were developed: failures were intentionally implanted into the device and students were asked to troubleshoot contributing causes based on dynamically changing visual breath waveforms. Guidance was provided as needed to students utilizing tactile and audio/visual senses to identify failure points. Student feedback revealed that 100% agreed it improved their understanding of ventilators and troubleshooting ventilators, 83% would recommend this to other universities, and 58% wanted a longer module, revealing that the platform has strong potential to bring value into the classroom.

Citation
Format

Abidi, S. Z., & Suturin, V., & Read, R. L., & Bechard, N. (2023, June), A democratized open-source platform for medical device troubleshooting Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42386

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how access to medical device R&amp;amp;D resources, including ventilators, is essential for new biomedical engineering teams to succeed in getting their ideas noticed, securing funding, and ultimately providing their products to patients. Equally, early coursework exposure of future developers and clinical users of such technology is an important criterion for the generation of future ideas and progress of intensive care medicine. The pandemic has created student recognition of the global need for critical respiratory care, motivating hands-on educational kits based around sophisticated medical devices, which are scarce and not easily affordable for most universities. To help meet this need, we developed an open-source medical ventilator education platform, intentionally transparent in nature. The mechanical design specifically aimed to be simultaneously visible to a group of about eight students in a group classroom teaching scenario. A working prototype of the platform was constructed and tested, achieving Pressure-Controlled-Ventilation (PCV) mode medical functionality typically provided by expensive ICU ventilators. Via a plastic test lung, the platform is capable of teaching principles of pulmonology and basic respiratory therapy. It can also be used for advanced mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, bioengineering, and computer programming projects. To effectively democratize this technology, a high degree of modularity supports unique changes or extensions in the hardware and software design by local manufacturers, research labs, or upper-class bioengineering capstone projects. The technology licenses allow any engineering or research group to build and/or modify one without a fee or legal encumbrance. Design principles that make it good for hands-on training also make it easy to build, modify, and service, making it ideal for graduate research labs or low-and-middle income countries. We implemented a pilot study of educational utility in a bioengineering troubleshooting class at Rice University with a cohort of 12 students. Eight troubleshooting classroom exercises were developed: failures were intentionally implanted into the device and students were asked to troubleshoot contributing causes based on dynamically changing visual breath waveforms. Guidance was provided as needed to students utilizing tactile and audio/visual senses to identify failure points.  Student feedback revealed that 100% agreed it improved their understanding of ventilators and troubleshooting ventilators, 83% would recommend this to other universities, and 58% wanted a longer module, revealing that the platform has strong potential to bring value into the classroom. 
AU  - Sabia Zehra Abidi
AU  - Victor Suturin
AU  - Robert Lee Read
AU  - Nathaniel Bechard
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A democratized open-source platform for medical device troubleshooting
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/42386
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--42386
ER  -