Infusion Set

Saving lives of children: medical device for safe administration of IV therapy

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Partner: Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) Year: 2015(?) Sector: Health

The Challenge:

Shock affects 10% of children admitted to Ugandan hospitals. Approximately 11-12% of them die, often within hours of admission. The majority of these children need immediate intravenous therapy, but often the needed equipment is not available. In order to ensure safe administration of intravenous fluids and drugs to these children, electronic devices are necessary, but existing products are prohibitively expensive and not well suited for low resource settings.

Solution

Engineers and technicians at the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) have worked on a solution following a needs assessment visit to Mulago National Referral Hospital’s Children’s Acute Care ward in 2013. They have developed an electronically controlled gravity feed (ECGF) device that can ensure the safe administration of intravenous fluids and drugs to children under the age of five.

The device they have developed uses gravity flow as opposed to a pumping mechanism. This means that the device can be delivered a highly reduced price compared to the imported infusion sets. Furthermore, the gravity-feed infusion set is operated using batteries which makes it more reliable for situations where power-cuts are common. In January 2016, UIRI engaged Design without Borders to help develop the casing for the device to prepare it for clinical testing.