Wayne State Researchers Obtain Patent for New Anesthesia Monitoring Technology

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A team of researchers from Wayne State University in Detroit were issued a U.S. patent on a technology that better monitors and manages patients under anesthesia, giving physicians early, critical condition warnings in real time.

“Our smart anesthesia monitoring system allows physicians to look into the near-future prediction of a patient’s vitals and make decisions that are more objective, timely, and accurate,” says Le Yi Wang, professor of electrical and computer engineering in the college of engineering at Wayne State.

The technology uses real-time monitoring to provide an individualized prediction of a patient’s anesthesia depth and vital signs, helping anesthesiologists make decisions for targeted anesthesia depths during surgery. A prototype of the system has been developed and tested with commercial anesthesia monitoring systems.

“The advantages of our smart anesthesia monitor compared to others includes drug impact predictions, optimal drug dosage, and critical condition warnings in real time,” says Dr. Hong Wang, professor of anesthesiology in the school of medicine and one of the collaborators on the technology. “This ultimately could lead to increased decision accuracy, reduced clinical workload, and improved patient care.”

Wang says general anesthesia decisions on dosages are challenging and depend on the patient’s medical conditions, surgical procedures, drug interactions, blood pressure, and heart rate. She says errors in anesthesia decisions can occur even with experienced personnel, given so many potential patient variables.