Specialized catheter to prevent neonatal IV infiltration wins 2020 National James Dyson Award

September 17, 2020 – Catheters are a common tool among medical professionals and are used to dispatch fluids into the human body. Although a simple practice, 23% of adults and 70% of neonatal patients experience IV infiltration¹, which occurs when a catheter is dislodged in the vein or improperly placed causing fluids and medications to leak into the surrounding tissue.

A group of six University of British Columbia engineering students discovered the problem and prevalence of IV infiltration specifically among vulnerable populations like neonatal or elderly patients after interviewing over 70 biomedical experts including professors, industry leaders, and clinicians. To solve this problem the students leveraged their varied educational backgrounds in biomedical, software and mechanical engineering to develop Attentiv Catheter: a new type of catheter that uses bioelectric properties to monitor IV delivery and automatically signal when infiltration is detected. This innovation earned them the top spot in the 2020 national James Dyson Award in Canada.

Attentiv uses a small sensor that differentiates between blood and tissue to localize the position of the catheter and determine if it has correctly entered the vein or is outside the vein, one of the causes of infiltration. When infiltration is sensed, an alert is transmitted through a wire mounted along the IV tubing and broadcasted to a monitor, alerting the physician or nurse. The onboard algorithm uses the average of the bioimpedance signal to look for spikes or irregularities that may indicate infiltration.

The team identified the neonatal ICU as the group that most requires a solution such as theirs, as newborn babies can be the most vulnerable to IV infiltration. The sensor is small enough for infants with fragile conditions and can be easily integrated into a nurse’s regular routine.

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