First drafted in a power point presentation.
The novel idea/invention of the required business plan is to further develop a well known neurosurgical intervention to treat a condition called hydrocephalus. The intervention that is used world wide by all hospitals in their neurosurgical services is called External Ventricular Drain (EVD).
The currently used EVD is to drain the extra accumulating volume of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in order to improve the patient condition, and also for monitoring to measure the intra-cranial pressure (ICP). However, those EVD's are very prone to blockage by blood and sometimes debris of an infection even if there is no blood. So in these situations, the neurosurgeons must flush the EVD externally under sterile condition to clear the tip internally and unblock the tip that drains and measure accurately the ICP.
This can happen several times for a single patient during his hospital admission in an intensive care unit or a ward bed. It makes it more demanding on the physician to do this as nurses are not allowed to flush the drain internally, they can only flush it externally from the hub to the collecting system but not from the hub/valve to the internal part that is placed in the ventricle of the brain which is filled with CSF.
In addition, sometimes the physician neurosurgeon can't get fast enough to the patient which makes the patient's condition placed at risk as typically patients with blocked EVD get worsened and deteriorates very fast if the blockage has not been removed quickly.
In some situations, despite multiple flushing, the blockage can't be removed so the neurosurgeon has to place a new EVD, which requires time and it raises the cost overall.
So with the above in mind, and the fact that this is a very common almost daily scenario in any neurosurgical service, my novel idea is basically to develop an EVD that has a micro sensor attached to it's tip that sets in the ventricle so whenever the EVD gets blocked it will show on the monitoring system so the bedside nurse would be notified right away, but at the same time the EVD has a self-irrigating mechanism to flush the tip with the same solution (usually normal saline) that we are now use to flush the drain manually.
This ensures that there will be no delay at intervening, as it is automatically done and will not subject the patient to any delay that could worsen his condition. Also, everything remains sterile so no need to keep touching the drain valve outside and sterilize it with special solution in order to manually flush the drain. This of course, will significantly reduce the risk of drain infection from several manipulations to unblock it when it gets blocked. In addition, the cost will be lowered as well so one drain will last the entire hospital admission rather than the potential and not uncommon replacement of drains that don't respond to multiple trials of saline flushing.
I believe the market for this invention will target all hospitals around the world who treat neurosurgical patients given the efficacy of the system if well developed, and the long term savings for each hospital if we can avoid replacing these drains every now and then. Not to underestimate the ultimate benefit for patients care as explained above.
I truly think if this is a success, it will be the new standard of care of all neurosurgical patients who requires EVD's placement.
Required 5 pages, single spaced excludes a reference page
Attachment:- Guidelines.rar