BML 741 - Major Exam

May 7, 2017
By- Mohit Kumar ( 2013EE10474)
Project - Color based Urine Chemistry Analyzer - Aim is to make an inexpensive
alternate of already available devices.
1. Possible reasons of failure of product in market-
(i) Bigger hospitals, which receive most number of patients, can afford to pa
y for the existing solutions. Saving few thousands does not make much diff
erence to them.
(ii) Service provided by the existing companies makes them more reliable. Bef
ore a certain success in sales or financial investments in our product, that is
not possible to do for us. For example, if a device fails in some hospital, we n
eed to have a support ready to be sent there.
(iii) To make the product inexpensive, we may have to compromise with accurac
y and success rate in diagnosis, which is undesirable.
(iv) Our primary aim is to make it affordable for individual buyers for home
use. We can't compete with the existing produxts in the hospitals (unless our di
agnosis gives >95% true results). So cost of production is crucial, because sale
will be in retail.
(v) One possible failure ccn be just because of product's look and feel. If i
t is not small enough, good looking and easy to interace with, then customers wo
n't buy it.
2. Anatomy of human breating makes the problem fundamentally difficult. Only one
way to approach lungs, through throat. Apparently, we have only two options - e
ither make tracheotomy noninvasive, or if that is not possible, make tracheotomy
damage heal faster.
(i) Making it noninvasive - Abdominal and chest muscles create expension and
retraction of chest for breathing. The reason a patient can't breathe, it genera
lly unability of these muscles to work properly.
When a patient is put on ventilator, he/she is supplied with high oxygen levels,
that make the brain believe there is not much need to put force by muscles to w
ork for breathing. This is like negative feedback system. Weak muscles keep gett
ing weaker, because of less work, making patient more dependent on ventilation,
eventually, tracheotomy. So for our solution, we need to engage the muscles of c
hest and abdomen as mush as possible.
Also, it is observed that coughing makes the mentioned muscles retract unexpecte
dly, creating a negative pressure finally, and expending afterwards. So mechanis
m of coughing not only makes muscles engage, but also creates blood better flow,
and an added benefit is clearing of mucus from trachea and lungs. Airway is cle
ared is breating is enabled for some time.
So, a system that can make a patient cough and balance supply of oxygen just so
to keep muscles engaged, can help avoid weakening of muscles and avoid tracheoto
my.
Problems with this method - How to know that to what stage of system failur
e, applying this solution will work? For example, if a patient's abdominal muscl
es have internal bleeding, making him/her cough will make serious damage. In cas
es of neural failure, retracted muscles by coughing can get fixed in this orient
ation, and then not even surgical tracheotomy will save the patient. Also, reduc
ing oxygen to demand more work from muscles is dangerus. If carbon-di-oxide leve
l in blood gets higher, patient can pass out and permanent brain damage can occu
re.
Market viability - Not all patients arrive with damaged respiratory muscles
. In such cases, coughing and then reducing oxygen level can always be used as a
prior possible treatment. If it succeeds, no need for tracheotomy.
(ii) Making traheatomy damage heal faster - When tracheotomy is unavoidable,
after long term use, it can severely damage vocal system and trachea. In such ca
ses, only option is to let the patient heal so that at least, he/she can talk.
Muscles, skin, lever tissue etc can be transplanted from a healthy person
to patient. Why not trachea, bulbar tissue transplant? After a patient's trache
otomy is over, a suitable donor's trachea tissue can be applied with patient's t
issue to damaged area.
Problems with this method - Finding a suitable donor in time is not easy.
If patient's immune system discards the new donor tissue, it will complicate th
e situation.
Market viability - Success of this method can reduce recovery time, and at
least help patient speak, of-course, with a suitable donor. More critical organ
s like kidneys, hearts can be transplanted with considerable success rate. So tr
achea tissue transplant is definitely a possible solution.