*Clinical Scenario #1: Bolus Requesting

Typical PCA infusion pumps have a patient-pendant with which patients may request a bolus. When patients request a bolus, PCA pumps administer a certain amount of drug to patients according to the prescription. The speed of administering bolus depends on the bolus rate parameter.

*Clinical Scenario #2: The detection of Syringe Loaded

Syringe-type PCA infusion pumps have a safety feature that drug-infusion is only processed when a syringe is loaded in the syringe-slot correctly. Detecting syringe-loaded condition can be done through either mechanical mechanisms or sensors. This scenario shows that drug-loaded condition is detected through a sensor attached in the syringe-slot. In case of using sensor, software routine should interact with the sensor to deal with the alarming condition.

*Clinical Scenario #3: The Detection of Empty Reservoir Condition

Typical PCA infusion pumps have a safety feature that detects empty-reservoir conditions. Upon detecting the empty-reservoir, PCA infusion pumps are supposed to raise alarm and stop infusion to avoid hazardous conditions such as underinfusion. Detecting empty-reservoir conditions can be done through either mechanical mechanisms or sensors. This scenario shows that the empty-reservoir condition is detected through a sensor attached in the pump hardware.

*Clinical Scenario #4: The Display of Bolus Processing

PCA infusion pumps should provide an intuitive way to interact with patients or caregivers. User interface is one of the important peripherals consisting of PCA infusion pumps. Information appeared in User Interface should correctly describe drug administration processes or alarm condition so that patients and caregivers take appropriate actions. The video shows the example of User Interface during processing bolus.

*Clinical Scenario #5: The example of clinical workflow with PCA pump

Caregivers or patients go through several steps in order to start drug-administration. For example, the steps include dose rate setting, VTBI setting, entering patient information. The video shows one example of such workflow. After starting infusion, PCA pumps informs caregivers or patients of alarming conditions such as low or empty reservoir through audible or visible mechanism.

Full video

Clinical Scenario: The detection of door open condition during infusion

Typical syringe PCA infusion pumps have a drug reservoir door that protects syringes from hazardous situations (e.g., removing syringes without stopping the current infusion). Upon detecting the door open condition during infusion in progress, pumps should raise an alarm so that caregivers can take an appropriate action (e.g., close the door or stopping the infusion). Typically, detecting such door open conditions relies on the sensor data coming from the switch sensor that is attached to the door. This demo scenario shows that the pump detects such a door open condition by reading sensor data; the pump handles the alarming condition by raising the buzzer and terminates the current infusion by stopping the pump-motor..

Clinical Scenario: The detection of abnormal flow rate during infusion

Some PCA infusion pumps have drop sensors in order to keep track of flow rates during infusion. Abnormal flow rate may lead to hazardous conditions to the patients (e.g., over-infusion or under-infusion). Upon detecting abnormal flow rate (e.g., flow rate too fast or flow rate too slow), pumps should raise an alarm so that caregivers can take an appropriate action (e.g., removing occlusion condition). Such drop sensor can count drops so that software routines can use this information in order to decide whether the current flow rate is too fast or slow w.r.t. the programmed infusion rate. This demo scenario shows the pump detects such abnormal flow rate by counting the number of drops; the pump handles the alarming condition by raising the buzzer.

Flow rate accuracy testing of the GPCA reference implementation

Each infusion pump may have different flow rate accuracy that are originated from various sources such as the precision of software control or the precision of hardware (e.g., pump-motor). One need to choose the right infusion pump that meets expected flow rate accuracy required in different clinical scenarios. Therefore, it is necessary to specify the flow rate accuracy of an infusion pump in order to provide a guidance for users to select the right pump. One way of testing the flow rate accuracy is to follow the standard that has been used in practice. This video demonstrates how the flow rate accuracy of the PCA pump can be tested and analyzed according to the IEC60601-2-24 standard. In this standardized method, drug volumes are sampled every fixed interval, and then those sampled volumes are represented as two different types of graph (1) start-up graph (2) trumpet curve for analysis purposes.