Vancouver, Canada—February 14, 2011—UBC Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Guy Dumont and Mark Ansermino, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, have received the NSERC Brockhouse Canada prize today at a ceremony in Ottawa. The prize recognizes Canadian interdisciplinary research teams who have combined their expertise to produce achievements of outstanding international significance in the natural sciences and engineering. A $250,000 research grant accompanies the prize.

Photo by Martin Dee, compliments of UBC ICICS

Dumont, a process control engineer, and Ansermino, Director of Research for Pediatric Anesthesia at BC Children’s Hospital and an Associate Clinician Scientist at the Child and Family Research Institute, marry their research to help protect people in a most vulnerable state—unconsciousness in the operating room.

“We are designing computer-based systems to assist the anesthesiologist in the operating room. Some tasks can be done better by computers and other tasks by humans,” says Dumont.

The goal is to make patients safer by freeing the anesthesiologist of unnecessary tasks.

• Modern operating rooms can be a cacophony of noise and visual detail; Dumont and Ansermino have developed a number of novel devices , including NeuroSense, a device that monitors a patient’s EEG (Electroencephalography—electrical brain activity) during anesthesia, and senses changes in the level of consciousness in patients 30 seconds sooner than anything currently on the market. It is also more reliable in its analysis of these brain wave changes. Unlike other devices, NeuroSense is specifically designed for use during automated (closed-loop control) anesthesia where a computer and infusion pump control the depth of anesthesia without intervention from the anesthesiologist.
• The two have collaborated on controlled drug delivery in anesthesia, specifically intravenous anesthesia for children. This method offers advantages over the traditional method of inhaled anesthesia, which can lead to delayed and unpredictable recovery, and side effects such as nausea, vomiting and delirium. Intravenous delivery is now being used in up to 80% of surgeries at BC Children’s Hospital.
• In the near future clinical trials will begin with a device that can automatically adjust the depth of anesthesia. Similar to the auto-pilot in aviation, the goal of this ‘anesthesia autopilot’ is to improve safety. When excessive or insufficient levels of anesthesia are detected, the autopilot can end, reduce or increase the drugs—avoiding undesirable events without clinician intervention. Their computer- controlled method offers quick and accurate calculations, which helps to increase patient safety by compensating for human errors. It also reduces costs by more efficiently administering drugs.
• The team has also developed the Intelligent Anesthesia Navigator (IAN), which applies advances in digital processing technologies, currently used in industries such as aviation and nuclear energy, to prevent adverse hospital events. IAN improves the system function of the “bedside cockpit” of the operating room by developing and applying engineered solutions that intelligently analyze and interpret large amounts of physiological sensor data and turn it into clinically useful information. It is currently possible to measure more than 70 different parameters (such as heart rate and blood pressure) continuously during anesthesia. IAN is innovative in automatically extracting important events that may have been missed by the anesthesiologist.
• The team has also developed tactile alerts, never used in medicine before, which attach to the anesthesiologist and, using the sense of touch rather than auditory alarms, vibrate as a means of alerting to changes in the patient.

The pair is now turning their attention to the developing world, where the implementation of their low-cost technologies will compensate for a lack of trained personnel/resources, heralding a new era of globally accessible and safer anesthesia.

For more information, photos and videos, visit: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Media-Media/ForMedia-PourMedias/Brockhouse-Brockhouse/Dumont-Dumont_eng.asp

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