Inspiration
Following major surgery, a patient's journey is only half over; they must recover safely, evading bacterial infections, bloods clots, and other complications. With so many potential problems arising, it becomes difficult to keep track of each variable contributing to the patient's health, and some variables become overlooked. During COVID especially, or even in a typically understaffed hospital, the quantity of patients largely outnumbers the quantity of nurses and doctors available to provide care when needed. One of the first signs of sepsis and death following a major surgery is acute kidney failure (AKF), but as we mentioned, many smaller factors such as urine output become overlooked due to time constraints and other limitations. Our product strives to solve this problem, creating a supportive system for nurses and doctors to better account for urine output without as much of the time commitment or practitioner headspace required.
What it does
Following a major surgery, patients are typically catheterized, meaning their urine is sent directly into a urine bag. We use a temperature sensor, which is attached to the exterior of the urine bag, to record when the patient urinates and how much urine they have made. We found that an individual who needs medical attention for acute kidney failure will produce less than or equal to 175 mL of urine within 6 hours, so our system determines the volume of urine the patient has produced within that timeframe and pages the doctors on call if it's within the unhealthy range. Using this, doctors are able to know of their patient's kidney health as soon as possible, and they still have plenty of time to make steps towards preventing acute kidney failure.
How we built it
Our product consists of a sensor and a notification device. The sensor is a temperature sensor that we would attach to the exterior of the urine bag. The sensor is connected to an Arduino, which then sends data to the SQL database. If needed, the sensor also sends data to the pager; it does so using I2C communication.
Challenges we ran into
We initially wanted to use RF to connect our Arduino to the "pager", but we didn't have the hardware to do that. We also had trouble writing some of the software, as we weren't as familiar with writing Arduino code. We had trouble deciding on a project idea (as many do), and we had trouble thinking of how to use a temperature sensor to measure volume. Transitioning from using RF to using I2C and our software problems were definitely some of our greatest hurdles for this project.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud that we finished our hardware well! Our software isn't perfect, but we're glad it's functional. We're also proud that we were able to go to workshops, talk to people, and have a great time :)
What we learned
We learned a lot about hardware! We solidified our knowledge on I2C and RF. We learned more about coding with Arduino and C++, and we brushed up on old SQL topics we thought we had forgotten. Learned a lot!
What's next for ratemyPatientPortal
We have a lot to improve on! We'd like to add features that detect if there's blood in urine. We'd like to finally incorporate RF into our project. Come talk to us or reach out learn more! We'd love to chat!
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