Inspiration The healthcare sector often struggles with a shortage of professionals, especially during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation led to overwhelming patient volumes and significant challenges for hospital staff. Conversations with healthcare workers revealed that monitoring saline drips is a critical issue, as staff can easily overlook patients who require constant saline administration. This neglect can result in dangerous situations, including blood entering saline bottles and air embolism, where air bubbles enter the bloodstream, potentially leading to severe complications or death.
What It Does The Saline Management System automates the monitoring and control of saline drips to enhance patient safety and reduce the workload of healthcare staff. It ensures that saline levels are consistently monitored, automatically shutting off the saline flow when critical thresholds are reached. The system also provides real-time notifications to nurses, allowing them to respond promptly to any issues.
How We Built It Technologies Used:
NodeMCU: Acts as the central control unit, managing data from the load cell and controlling the servo motor. Load Cell: Measures the weight of the saline bottle to determine the remaining saline level. Servo Motor: Automatically closes the saline pipe when the saline level drops below a threshold of 40 grams. Web Dashboard: Developed using Lemmebuild for real-time data visualization and control features. Functionality:
The load cell continuously monitors the weight of the saline bottle. When it falls below 40 grams, the NodeMCU activates the servo motor to stop the saline flow. The web dashboard displays the current saline level and includes a manual override switch for healthcare staff to intervene as needed. It also sends alerts for critical saline levels.
Challenges We Ran Into Technical Integration: Ensuring seamless communication between the load cell, NodeMCU, and servo motor required thorough testing and troubleshooting. User Interface Design: Creating a user-friendly dashboard that effectively displays real-time data while allowing manual controls posed design challenges. Ensuring Reliability: Developing a system that operates reliably in a high-stress hospital environment required rigorous testing.
What We Learned The importance of user feedback in designing effective healthcare solutions; staff insights greatly informed our system's functionality. Challenges in hardware integration highlighted the need for careful planning and prototyping. The value of automation in healthcare settings, particularly in areas prone to oversight.
What's Next for the Saline System Further Testing and Validation: We plan to conduct extensive field tests in hospital environments to ensure the system’s reliability and effectiveness. Feature Enhancements: Future iterations may include additional sensors and capabilities, such as remote monitoring through mobile devices and integration with hospital information systems. Expanding Applications: Explore applications of the technology in other areas of patient monitoring and management to address additional healthcare challenges.
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