SBIR-STTR Award

The goal of this project is to develop a computer-based system that will provide continuous neurological function monitoring of patients in a surgical intensive care unit. The system will record, analyze, and track changes in both the background electroencephalogram (EEG) as well as sensory evoked responses (SERS) on a continuous basis and integrate them with other physiological parameters.Although improvement in patient management and outcome due to this type of monitoring has been clearly demonstrated, it is not done on a widespread basis due to a number of technical and economic problems. These include electrodes, cumbersome lead wires, artifacts from patient movement, difficulty of equipment usage, cost of equipment and technician time, data analysis, and lack of meaningful trended displays. Research during this project is directed towards designing a low-cost, microcomputerbased system to overcome these problems. The development of this device will allow widespread use of a technique that could significantly improve the outcome of head-injured patients and others in neurological intensive care units.National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

The goal of this Phase II project is to continue development of a low-cost computer-based system which will provide continuous neurological function monitoring of patients in an intensive care unit. The Phase I work showed the feasibility of such a system. The system will record, analyze, and trend changes in the background electroencephalogram, sensory evoked potentials, and a number of other parameters such as intracranial pressure and blood pressure on a continuous basis. It has been shown that such continuous monitoring can greatly improve the management and outcome of several patient groups including severely brain-injured patients, coma, stroke, and subarachnoid hemorrhages. Currently this type of monitoring i not done on a widespread basis due to a number of technical and economic problems which innovations from this project hope to overcome. Continued work on algorithms for artifact detection, data analysis, and data display as well as optimization of the hardware in terms of size and cost will be conducted at Interspec. Clinical testing, development of monitoring protocols, and prediction strategies will follow at two institutions involved in neurological intensive care. The commercial potential is excellent for a low-cost, automated monitor which would allow widespread use of techniques which could significantly improve the outcome of those i a neurological intensive care unit.

Thesaurus Terms:
Biomedical Engineering, Instrumentation Clinically Oriented Biomedical Systems Automated, Patient Monitoring (Monitoring Devices) Brain Electrical Activity, Electroencephalography Brain Injury Cardiovascular Function, Blood Pressure Computer, Design And Evaluation Of Computers (Incl. Hardware) Computer, Man-Computer Interaction Computer Printing-Graphics Computer Programming Electropotentials, Evoked Potentials Health Care Services, Patient Care Management Health Economics, Health Care Costs-Finanational Cancer Institute (Nci)Ng Hospitals, Intensive Care Units Information And Communication, Automatic Data Processing Neurophysiology, Intracranial PressureNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)