Inspirometer
Background: The Inspirometer is an attachable device to the current FDA approved incentive spirometer. The incentive spirometer is a medical device often prescribed by doctors post-surgery to help inflate the alveoli in the lungs. By improving lung function, the incentive spirometer helps prevent lung infections such as pneumonia and atelectasis. When adhering to compliance, patients will have a lower rate of re-hospitalizations due to these preventable conditions.However, there is an issue with compliance in periatric patients, specically between the ages of 3-9 years old. In order to improve compliance, my senior design team and I aimed to make the device more engaging for the pediatric patient population.
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How it works: Our device is an IR sensor attached to the goal indicator of the current incentive spirometer. When the patient reaches the inhalation volume goal, the sensor sends a signal to a relay switch, which initiates an external motivator. As of now, we use an automated bubble machine for an external motivator. However, in the spring semester, we plan to test our design on actual pediatric patients and we will show them different types of external motivators that might be appealing to them.
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My role (First Semester of Senior Design): In terms of the process, I was primarily involved with documentation,pretotyping and leading ideation sessions. I also coordinated the meeting with Dr.Weiner, and was present at all ethnography visits.
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DHF Documentation: Hazards and risks, FDA classification, Verification, and FTA
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Non-DHF: Ethnography reports, brainstorm sessions, and pretotyping
My role (Second Semester of Senior Design): ​During the second semester of senior design, I was involved with prototyping and developing protocols for V&V
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Designed the sensor housing of the Inspirometer to snap fit while being at an optimal distance and position to sense the piston
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It took a few different iterations to sufficiciently tolerance and ensure the user can easily slide the sensor housing
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Created verification and validation protocols and performed testing​​
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