The Challenge:

Need to monitor and administer the correct amount of medication to cancer patients going through chemotherapy at a rate that will prevent blood clots:

• Is the pump injecting the liquid at a safe rate?
• Has the blood clotted in the vein of the patient?
• Has the needle missed the target vein?
• Has the needle mistakenly penetrated through both walls of the vein?

How it works:

Our syringe pump safety switch system is designed to allow medical personnel to setup a safety switch for their patients receiving treatments that can take hours to administer for e.g. chemotherapy for treatment of cancer. The system monitors the amount of pressure needed to be applied by the pump and.  If a clot or occlusion occurs, the pressure needed to be applied goes up significantly.  By monitoring the magnitude and rate of this applied pressure one can infer if the pump needs to be cut of before damage can be done to delicate blood vessels.

Diagram:

Results:

Solution:

Use one load cell between the syringe pump apparatus and the syringe in order to monitor the applied pressure by the syringe pump.

Parts Used:
• 1 iLoad Mini 10lb Dome Miniature Load Cell
• 1 Syringe Pump
• 1 Displacement Indicator
• 1 DQ-1000U
• LoadVUE Pro software

Total time to setup
• 1 hour