During emergency situations the primary priority of a responder is to create and maintain a patient's airway. Once an airway has been established the responder then works to determine the location of any hemorrhages and staunch the blood loss. How quickly and efficiently a responder can accomplish these tasks often determines the probability of survival of the patient. This is especially true for scenarios where a responder is dealing in a remote location. Skilled interventions often make the critical difference in survival for patients with actual or impending airway compromise and/or hemorrhaging. Creating, managing, and maintaining an airway in combination with stopping blood loss are difficult in the best of situations. An operation or response where a well-equipped hospital is not available generates additional layers of unique and complex challenges. Emergency care providers lack some of the advanced life saving tools normally available in hospitals such as high-powered suction, which may not be available or effective when responding to patients in the field. In even more hazardous environments such as during military operations, the confined spaces and hostile action limit the ability to intervene with an artificial airway or assisted ventilation for wounded soldiers. Therefore, the development of a powerful, lightweight, handheld vacuum suction device would greatly enhance the ability of a military medic to clear and maintain a soldier's airway, as well as the ability to clear wounds and stop bleeding. For most triage injuries the ability to have intermittent but effective suctioning increases the chance of survival significantly until a higher level of emergency care can be applied.
Suction is a critical yet simple and effective way to clear and maintain an emergency airway, or allow a responder to locate the source of a hemorrhage in debris filled wound. But, despite how critical suction is to saving patients, it remains one of the most difficult functions to perform in remote medical environments due to the lack of adequate tools. Therefore, the ultimate goal for this I-Corps team is to prototype, test, and prepare for manufacture a portable suction device for use in emergency airway management and hemorrhage control. The device under development is intended to replace current devices on the market, which are unsatisfactory in terms of effectiveness, portability, suction power, and particulate removal. Ongoing work in the lab has led to early designs, and the continued development of a suction device would greatly enhance the ability of emergency responders and military providers to care for critically wounded patients. Continued work will consist of development and implementation of a design feedback and control system to meet the needs of emergency care and ensure patient safety. This proposed project will provide a systematic marketing study and define device performance specifications. In addition, incorporation of customer feedback will be blended with the engineering design process to ensure that the final product will be the best solution for the customer. Finally, fluid dynamic analysis, mathematical modeling, and verification and validation will be applied to ensure the efficacy and safety of the device for human use, and to ensure that the device preforms to the level that will be outlined in the specifications.
