METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS

1. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SYSTEM FOR THE SIMULATION OF MEDICAL SCENARIOS OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM OF NEONATAL PATIENTS Round 100 million babies are born in the world every year Y. Estepa , E. J. Ramos, M. Varón, J. Bacca, L. C. MéndezUniversidad Nacional de Colombia. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Department of Pediatrics Bogotá , Colombia. Approximately 10% of them need some assistance to initiate their breathing. 1% require intensive efforts of resuscitation such as endotracheal intubation or a respiratory inducing massage ABSTRACT This project is about the design and implementation of an electro-mechanical system for the simulation of medical scenarios of the respiratory system of neonatal patients. The system implements three possible scenarios, including the application of a chest massage technique developed at the School of Medicine at Universidad Nacional. The system uses two graphical user interfaces (GUI). INTRODUCTION Figure Nº 1. Source: World Health Organization. Fact sheet N178, June 2012. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs178/en/index.html In neonatology, undesired events in medical procedures performed by professionals may have an impact for the newborn in its development. For this reason, the training and knowledge of medical personnel, nursing and respiratory therapy students becomes a key factor at the moment of saving a life or ensuring an adequate prognosis before treating real patients.[1,-3] Figure Nº 2 – Neonatal Emulator – Figure N° 5 Practitioner’s Simulator The second GUI presents the scenario to the student about to carry on his/her practice. • The system should emulate the chest massage technique or respiratory inducing massage, an important process in the care of newborns with difficulties in the immediate onset of breathing at birth. • The system should implement the administration of dispensed medicines. This is, essential to clearly identify the type of medicine that is placed, indication, preparation, dose, actions expected and direct clinical response, depending on the clinical episode which was diagnosed and is been. • The decisions taken by the undergraduate or graduate student should reflect both in a Dummy Block, as in a Monitor Block. Both modules have a bi- directional 2 wireless communication system; This allows the constant updating of data depending on the decisions taken by the student for a particular simulated clinical case. • After being presented the scenario, the student must evaluate the symptoms shown in the emulator, as well as the vital signs graphs or values shown in the interface and respond by applying a treatment to the emulator whose response indicates if the procedure was appropriate. • Due to various reasons at birth some newborns can’t start breathing properly and if they start it not always achieved his consistency or desired stability; a situation that occurs in newborns could be solved properly through the chest massage maneuver or respiratory inductor. [4-7] • METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS • The design and implementation of an electromechanical system that could represent various clinical scenarios for neonates and also complies with the following requirements : • Figure N° 3.General scheme of operation of the electronic-mechanical system implemented to emulate various clinical scenarios of the respiratory system • of neonatal patients. • The system would allow the reproduction of physiology signs or symptoms and some pathologies of the respiratory system of a newborn. Such situations arecontrolled and validated by a specialist. Figure Nº 6- PhysicalDiagram- Module Emulator CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS • The system allowed to recreate real medical scenarios of the respiratory system of a newborn, both in the emulator and the graphical interface implemented, using propietarymedical methods and techniques. • I A two-way wireless communication system was implemented. It allowed the transmission of information between dummy and monitor modules, generating a feedback of the data and the decisions made by the person running the program. • The next step is to design and implement a dummies communication network with a unique central module. The central module would create several clinical scenarios simultaneously and it could implement different systems in the human organism. These scenarios could be sent to each dummy belonging to network, therefore, the practitioners will make their decisions at the same time. REFERENCES [1] A. Murphy and L. Halamek, “Simulation-based training in neonatal resuscitation”, Educational Perspectives, 2005. [2] D. J. Durand, A. E. D’Harlingue, “Recognition, Stabilization and Transport of the High-Risk Newborn”, In: Klaus MH, FanaroffAA: Care of the High-Risk Neonate. 3:77, 2001., fifth ed.,2001. [3] S. Currea, “La adaptaciónneonatal inmediata: la reanimación neonatal”. 1st Ed. Unibiblos, 2004. [4] Dr. Ruben Villalaz B, “Reanimación neonatal”, Panamá, November 1999. [5] J. Cooper and V. Taqueti. “A brief history of the development of mannequin simulators for clinical education and training”. QualSafHealth Care, 2004. [6] L. Arriaghi, D. Fonseca, J. Cifuentes, F. Prieto, L. Méndez andJ. Ramirez, “Development of a neonatal interactive simulator by using and RFID module for healthcare professionals training Deploying RFID - Challenges, Solutions, And Open Issues”, ISBN: 979-953-307-026-0, p.28 - 51 1, Croacia, 2011. [7] L. Arriaghi, D. Fonseca and J. Ramirez, “Implementation of an RFID based module for the emulation of drug prescription in a medical training mannequin”, Colombia, Latin-American Communications Conference, 2009. Figure N° 4 Doctor’s Simulator In the first GUI, a medical situation is created by a doctor using a series of parameters representing important clinical data.