STTR Phase I: Development of a lighted infusion line to optimize care and decrease complications of critically ill patients in infectious isolation (COVID-19)

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) Phase I project is to make the intensive care unit (ICU) safer for patients and less burdensome for nurses through the development of an illuminated intravenous tubes (IVT) for easier and error-free delivery of medications, enabling better care generally as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic. IVT identification requires an inordinate amount of nurses’ time and confers an immense cognitive burden as it requires manual tracing of the line from pump to patient. The errors associated with manual IVT tracing are costly, contributing to increased ICU length of stay and hospital liability. The current pandemic has exacerbated these issues as ICU admissions are rising and the use of enhanced isolation requiring extended IVT. Successful completion of the proposed program will support the development of an extended illuminated IVT that allows for reliable identification of IVT from pump to patient through the use of a fiber optic cable that nurses can turn on and off as needed when identifying lines. In comparison to the manual tracing of lines, an illuminated line has the potential to provide more rapid and error-free identification of IVT lines, thus reducing the impact of errors on patients, decreasing associated medical costs, and improving nurse workload. This Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) Phase I Project will advance the development of a novel lighted intravenous tubing (IVT) device to allow nurses to quickly and accurately identify IVT through the use of a light-emitting fiber optic cable attached to the outer wall of the IVT. Management of IVT and medication delivery, requires nurses to manually trace lines from pump to patient, which is an error prone process and particular interest for ICU patients that require upwards of 10 or more IVT lines simultaneously. The proposed program will advance the development of the extended illuminated IVT through the execution of two objectives. The first objective is to engineer the device to ensure that illumination can be maintained over the length of an extended line used in isolation settings. The second objective is to assess the performance of the extended prototype in a simulated ICU setting with enhanced isolation. Successful completion of the Phase I program will demonstrate feasibility of the extended illuminated IVT device in an isolation critical care setting as defined by reduced nurse burden and time in motion. 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.