IP Requirement: Emory IP
Experience Requirement:
– Mechanical Design
– Rapid Prototyping
Problem Description
Lab draws are essential in the inpatient practice of medicine to monitor key markers in the blood that guide treatment and diagnosis of many conditions. It is common practice to have daily labs drawn on patients for monitoring of blood counts, electrolytes, kidney function, and more. However, in certain patients and medical conditions, the timing of when labs are drawn from the patient are crucial in proper diagnosis and treatment. In order to get these timed lab draws, in most hospital systems there are barriers including nursing/phlebotomy availability, especially in busy practice settings such as the emergency department. Additionally, there is a burden of communication and care coordination between physician, nursing/phlebotomy, and the lab to ensure labs get drawn. Because of these barriers, many times labs that are needed are not drawn in a standardized manner affecting the ability to interpret and manage patients in certain contexts (i.e. a patient in diabetic keto acidosis that needs labs drawn every 2 to 4 hours in order to adjust their insulin rate – many times the labs are delayed affecting our ability to adjust and properly manage these patients). Another issue, is that some labs are required to be drawn in the middle of the night, which requires patient to be woken up, which can be very inconvenient and additionally prompts some patients to refuse the lab draw.
To address this, there are a few systems in place, primarily set through the EMR. Through the EMR, physicians are able to clarify the exact time that labs need to be drawn, which will then notify nursing at those specified times. However, despite this, in busy practice settings such as the ED, nursing is taking care of multiple patients and these labs are many times delayed for long periods of time.
The goal of this project would be to create a device that can attach to a peripheral intravenous line (PIV) in order allow for timed lab draws. This device will be able to ensure certain labs (such as monitoring an anion gap in a DKA patient) is done at standardized intervals improving patient care and diagnostic and therapeutic efficacy.
