Pneumothorax is a moderately common condition in the respiratory system, which can result in significant impairment or even death. Prompt treatment is urgent for sustaining quality of life. One contributing factor when there is a delay in the administration of treatment is a lack of training for the medical staff, especially active hands-on training. This insufficient training may delay recognition and diagnosis of pneumothorax, and also delay the start of the treatment. An improved training method would potentially enable a wider range of medical staff to be ready to identify pneumothorax and administer treatment in an efficient manner. The purpose of this project was to develop a hands on automated system for training. The system was based on a commercially available manual simulator with a hand pump. Automation was incorporated for filling of the air bag which simulated the trapped air of pneumothorax. Visual indications were presented to the user to show what state of training the simulator was in. This automated system reduced the fatigue factor, and improved the efficiency of the simulator for training trials by 60%. The automated system allowed for more trials to be performed in a given amount of time, with feedback given to the user so the trainee could be assured they were performing the treatment procedure correctly.
展开▼
