HYDERABAD: A team of researchers comprising students and faculty of BITS Pilani has embarked on a project to develop a simple-to-use tool that can prove helpful to hospitals in detecting minor errors in essential medical equipment, including ventilator, BiPAP, CPAP and ECG machine.
The tool is being developed after a group of faculty from the institute had visited Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad earlier this month, and found that some essential equipment, including few ventilators received under the PM CARES fund, were lying unused due to simple calibration or electrical connection errors.
The project undertaken in collaboration with Telangana-based Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) is expected to be ready in two months. All material costs will be borne by the HRDA. During this period, any minor errors detected in essential medical equipment at the hospital will be rectified by the researchers.
Speaking to Express, Prof P Yogeeswari, head of the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) for all BITS Pilani campuses, said that they were developing a calibrator and error-detector sensor. Prof. Yogeeswari said this tool will help save essential time that hospitals spend on waiting for an expert to repair equipment like ventilators.
“The doctors and other medical staff in an ICU would not have the technical knowledge about medical equipment, and if they find that they are malfunctioning, they might discard it. It takes a lot of time to call a company expert and detect the error. With this tool we are developing, someone with basic knowledge of electrical equipment can detect minor errors, if any, and fix them,” Prof Yogeeswari said.