Author: Deanna DePeau
Anesthesiology News
An engineering team in Pennsylvania is seeking to patent a haptic-force needle-insertion simulator, designed to provide proper training for ultrasound-guided, needle-based anesthesiology procedures.
The simulator was designed with the steady rate of insertion required for those challenging, complex and delicate needle-based procedures, especially for those lacking experience. The hand-held device could become a low-cost option that simulates the sensation of insertion while accessing the user’s performance via a computer program, if the currently pending provisional patent application is approved.
“There’s a buildup of force upon tissue deflection and a sudden release of force upon tissue puncture,” said Jason Moore, PhD, the lead researcher and an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Penn State College of Engineering, in University Park, Pa. “This training tool can help surgeons, residents and med students improve their dexterous abilities.”
Current training for needle-based procedures is lacking due to lack of variation that mimics actual situations that doctors will encounter, noted Sanjib Adhikary, MBBS, an associate professor of anesthesiology at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, in Hershey, and one of the investigators, during an interview with Anesthesiology News.
The research team hopes that the simulator will help solve this issue by offering experience on varying tissue types at a tentative price tag under $100.
“Mannequins are very constant; if you do it two or three times, it becomes the same,” Dr. Adhikary said. “But in real life, every situation is a different situation, and every patient is a different patient.”
Dr. Adhikary also explained that the simulator was designed with the ability to simulate the feeling of passing through several layers of tissue of various thicknesses while providing feedback.
“It is not objective. It is just subjective. And when you feel confident, you go and do it in the human,” he said on the current limitations in needle-insertion training. “Whereas what we are trying to develop is an objective to that value. When you do it you can change the different types [of] tissue. Also, it can record the whole procedure, so you can see whether you are improving.”
“Right now we are developing this for anesthesiologists, but it can be used for any ultrasound-guided procedure,” Dr. Adhikary said. These specialties included, but were not limited to, emergency medicine, radiology and surgery.
“I would love to see this widely applied, all the way down to undergraduate premed programs,” Dr. Moore said. “It could be impactful to easily assess this skill and provide meaningful feedback to allow for continuous improvement.”
The product’s creators plan to kick-start the commercialization of the product with the help of the university’s Engineering for Innovation & Entrepreneurship grant that they received from the College of Engineering. When speaking on the future of the simulation tool, they expressed their hopes in testing the device at Penn State Hershey beginning next fall in the hopes of improving physicians’ skills and providing accurate feedback.
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