Team Members:
- Mir Minhaz Ali
- Robin Elliott
- Greg Newcomb
- Wilfredo Oteromatos
An important medical device in use today is the bronchoscope, a tool invented by the German laryngologist, Dr. Gustav Killian, in 1895 and adapted by Dr. Chavalier Jackson, regarded as the father of bronchoscopy. A modern bronchoscope consists of a long, narrow tube (with a light and camera at the end) that is inserted through the mouth or nose and into the trachea to examine the air passages that lead into the lungs. The doctor can directly observe the trachea and bronchi through an eyepiece or lens; additionally the physician can use the bronchoscope to take specimens for culture and biopsy. Approximately 460,000 patients undergo bronchoscopy procedures every year in the United States.
In recent years, bronchoscope manufacturers worldwide have been buffeted by recalls and lawsuits related to models which are suspected of trapping and spreading bacteria among patients, causing pneumonia or other infectious diseases. Cross-patient contamination was probably caused by a lengthy, difficult cleaning procedure or by manufacturing defects. In either case, bacteria remain lodged within the catheter (insertion tube).
AquaLung is committed to solving this problem with a new and innovative bronchoscope design. Featuring a detachable and disposable catheter, the risk of patient-to-patient contamination will be eliminated entirely. As an improvement to the conventional bronchoscope which must be hooked up to a monitor or the image viewed through an eyepiece, our project will convert the analog image to digital, and send it on to a PC. The PC will process, interpolate, and display the image in real-time. Features will include: zoom in/out, crop, rotate, and color-enhancement of the image. Physicians will be able to consult with each other more easily when the image can be saved in an electronic, and thus portable, form. Additionally, the image can be accessed later for comparison.
We believe these changes to an existing medical device will help to solve known problems. In addition, we hope to make the device more flexible in its use and less costly overall.