Robust alarm design strategy for medical devices: Application to air-in-line detection and occlusion management
Microsystems department, Debiotech SA, Avenue de Sévelin 28, Lausanne 1004, Switzerland.
Research Article
Global Journal of Engineering and Technology Advances, 2023, 16(03), 030–040.
Article DOI: 10.30574/gjeta.2023.16.3.0181
Publication history:
Received on 19 June 2023; revised on 31 August 2023; accepted on 02 September 2023
Abstract:
Alarm fatigue in the hospital environment is a recurring problem that can be solved through technical, human, or organizational considerations. The use of technical factors to get a robust alarm management system is illustrated here by two case studies related to air-in-line detection in peritoneal dialysis and insulin pump occlusion management. Air-in-line sensors are usually very sensitive to the presence of small bubbles stuck on tubing and may therefore deliver false alarms. To provide a reliable estimate of the cumulated air volume pumped an IR sensor technology that is insensitive to small bubbles was implemented and tested. Another strategy was used to limit false occlusion alarms in an insulin patch pump. The piezoelectric actuator of this micropump was servo-controlled to the pressure sensor signal to allow insulin to flow into the patient despite the presence of a partial occlusion. The false alarm rate is thus reduced by using a self-adaptive occlusion detection threshold that has been evaluated using numerical simulations.
Keywords:
Alarm fatigue; Alarm design; Air-in-line detection; Occlusion management; IR bubble sensor; Pressure sensor; Insulin micropump; Peritoneal dialysis
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Copyright © 2023 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0