Handheld Oximeter Quality Reporting With Motion-Adjusted Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing oximeters face challenges in maintaining sanitation and sterility during reuse, leading to potential contamination and increased costs due to sanitization requirements, while also needing improvements in measurement accuracy, speed, and size reduction.
Innovation Solution
A compact, handheld oximeter housed in a sheath that shields the device from contaminants, utilizing nonvolatile memory for simulated reflectance curves and an accelerometer to adjust quality metrics based on movement, allowing for self-contained, robust calibration and spatially-resolved spectroscopy without requiring a pulse or heartbeat.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If oximeters are reused to reduce cost, then cost is reduced, but contamination risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The oximeter system is divided into two distinct segments: a reusable oximeter device and a disposable sheath. The sheath acts as a barrier that prevents contamination of the oximeter during use, allowing the oximeter to be reused without contamination risk while the sheath is discarded after single use.
Solution Approach 2:
A disposable sheath is introduced as an intermediary component between the oximeter and the patient/tissue. This sheath serves as a protective barrier that prevents direct contact and potential contamination, enabling the oximeter to be reused while maintaining sanitation standards.
2Measurement precision
If measurement accuracy is improved through additional processing, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Simulated reflectance curves are pre-calculated and stored in nonvolatile memory during device manufacturing or initial setup. These curves represent expected light reflection patterns at various oxygen saturation levels. During actual measurement, the device simply compares detector responses against these pre-stored curves using interpolation, avoiding the need for complex real-time calculations and reducing device complexity while maintaining high measurement precision.
3Reliability
If quality metrics are adjusted based on movement detection, then measurement reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
An accelerometer continuously monitors device movement and provides feedback to the processor. Based on the detected movement, the system automatically adjusts the quality metric value to reflect potential measurement degradation. This feedback mechanism improves measurement reliability by accounting for motion artifacts without requiring complex intervention, as the adjustment is automatically applied based on accelerometer data.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables reusable oximeters with improved sanitation, accurate oxygen saturation measurements, and reduced size, weight, and power consumption, suitable for various medical and surgical applications, including tissue flap monitoring.
Implementation Method 1
Tissue oximeters can measure oxygen levels in human tissue by exploiting these light-absorption differences
Implementation Method 2
receiving at a plurality of detectors of the oximeter device light reflected from the tissue in response to the emitted light
Data Source
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AI summary
An oximeter device determines an oxygen saturation for the tissue and determines a quality value for the oxygen saturation and associated measurements of the tissue. The quality value is calculated from reflectance data received at the detectors of the oximeter device. An accelerometer of the oximeter device can detect movement of the oximeter device when oximetry measurements are made by the oximeter device. An amount of the movement is an indicator of a probe face of the oximeter device changing position with respect to the tissue when the measurements are made. The accelerometer information is used by the oximeter device to adjust the quality value to reflect the amount movement. The oxygen saturation and the adjusted quality metric value are displayed on a display of the oximeter device so that a user may view the quality of the displayed information.