Team Flow

Mission:

To develop an efficient, user-friendly, and cost-effective method to accurately monitor the release of intravenous fluids into patients at hospitals and clinics.

Dinner with our primary collaborator, Emmanuel Acheampong in Kumasi, Ghana

Background:

In the African nation of Ghana, lower-respiratory illnesses, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and diarrheal diseases account for 28% of deaths. All of these conditions can require extended intravenous fluid line (IV) use. Currently, nurses in hospitals and clinics in Ghana frequently go from bed to bed and manually count and re-calculate IV drip rates. In highly-crowded facilities, this can become an overwhelming and error-prone process.

Visiting the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at KATH

Collaborations:

Our work is grounded in our partnership with Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, Ghana. Initially, the team’s focus was KATH’s emergency department through Emmanuel Acheampong, but following 2024 travel, our partnerships have extended to oncology, pediatrics, neonatal, HIV/AIDs, and nephrology specialists at KATH. In the near future, we will focus within KATH but long term we hope to distribute our product to rural health centers throughout Ghana and West Africa.

Prototype with test tube as IV drip chamber

Our Solution:

Our prototype uses a light based sensor to detect droplets passing through the drip chamber during IV administration. So far the team has demonstrated our circuits drip detection using a virtual instrument. Our next goal is to incorporate an Arduino that will record the drip rate and use it to determine flow and transition away from the breadboard as the circuit base.

Our annual cider mill trip circa Fall 2023

Recruitment 2024:

We are recruiting for our engineering and business subteams for Fall 2024! No prior experience required- our team has prepared educational resources to teach you everything you need to know from the ground up. The most valuable traits you can demonstrate to make your application stand out is a genuine interest in our mission, and excitement about bringing ideas to the table and helping us grow.