Authors:
Abraham Otero
1
;
Teodor Akinfiev
2
;
Andrey Apalkov
2
;
Francisco Palacios
3
and
Jesús Presedo
4
Affiliations:
1
University San Pablo CEU, Spain
;
2
Technical University of Madrid and Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CAR UPM-CSIC), Spain
;
3
University Hospital of Getafe, Spain
;
4
University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Keyword(s):
Biosensors, Urine output, Critical care, Patient monitoring.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biomedical Engineering
;
Biomedical Instruments and Devices
;
Biomedical Sensors
;
Devices
;
Health Monitoring Devices
;
Human-Computer Interaction
;
Physiological Computing Systems
Abstract:
Currently, critical care units are equipped with sophisticated commercial monitoring devices capable of sensing most of the patient’ physiological parameters, and of automatically supervising whether the values of the parameters lie within a preestablished range set by the clinician. The automation of these tasks has discharged the healthcare staff of a considerable workload. It also avoids human errors, which are common in repetitive and monotonous tasks.
In all likelihood, urine output is the most relevant physiological parameter that has yet to be sensed or supervised automatically. This paper presents a patent-pending device capable of sensing and supervising urine output. The device uses reed switches that are activated by a magnet that is attached to a float in order to measure the amount of urine collected in two containers. When a container fills, it is emptied automatically using a siphon mechanism and urine begins to collect again. An electronic unit sends the state of the
reed switches via Bluethooth to a PC. From this information, the PC calculates the urine output and supervises the achievement of therapeutic goals. The end result is a fully automated, simple, inexpensive and accurate urine meter.
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