POMPA

它是什么?

Pompa is an innovative inflator for endovascular procedures. A few components are single-use, but the most valuable parts can be reused for up to 1000 procedures. It has a lower environmental and economic impact than current single-use inflators after 9 uses.

你的灵感

The Dutch healthcare sector accounts for 7% of the country's national carbon emissions and 13% of material consumption. Single-use medical devices contribute significantly to this burden. Inflators are a major example. Around 100.000 inflators are used once and incinerated each year in the Netherlands, producing over 62.500 kg CO₂-eq. After use, they are considered contaminated and they would need to be disassembled, cleaned and sterilised for reuse. However, current inflators cannot be disassembled due to their assembly process, and cannot be reused.

如何运作？

Inflators are essential in interventional cardiology and radiology to restore blood flow to blocked blood vessels. They inflate a balloon with liquid at high pressures to clear the blockage and restore flow. Like current inflators, POMPA allows for both rapid and precise balloon inflation and deflation movements. It does so through an innovative quick-release mechanism. This new mechanism is intuitive for doctors, ensures clinical performance, and enables disassembly, making decontamination and safe reuse possible. After use, POMPA is easily disassembled in the operating room. Disposable parts are discarded, while the most valuable parts, which are designed for reuse, are brought to the hospital’s sterilisation department. There, they are cleaned, disinfected, assembled, inspected, disassembled, packed, and steam sterilised. During the next procedure in the OR, POMPA is completely reassembled with new disposable parts.

设计过程

POMPA results from combining a healthcare perspective with circular economy strategies. I began the project by observing procedures and interviewing doctors and nurses to understand the inflator's context of use and features. I spoke to decontamination experts to map out medical devices reuse workflows and sterilisation methods. I had to break existing inflators (impossible to disassemble) to study their architecture and perform environmental and economic hotspot assessments. This helped identify which parts were worth targeting for reuse. Existing reusable pressure gauges were proven unsuitable for safe reuse in the hospital setting. For the redesign of the other target parts, I conducted materials assessments to maximise reusability. Iterative sketching, modelling, and prototyping led to three working prototypes with different mechanisms designed for easy and rapid disassembly. Feedback from clinicians, engineers, and decontamination experts, plus testing with students, helped select the best concept and optimise it for smooth integration in medical and sterilisation workflows. The outcome is a product-service system that allows reuse for up to 1000 procedures and shows a lower economic and environmental impact after 9 uses, and a proof-of-principle prototype.

它有什么不同？

POMPA ensures bioburden safety and clinical performance, like existing inflators. It is also operated similarly to facilitate its adoption by clinicians. It stands out for reducing environmental impact after 3 uses and costs after 9 uses compared to current inflators. It is the first non-single-use inflator, and the first that can be disassembled without breaking. Its threaded and luer lock connections facilitate assembly and disassembly in under a minute while maintaining safety during use. Its reusable components integrate into hospital decontamination workflows and withstand high-pressure use and up to 1000 steam sterilisation cycles. All are made of SS 316L except for the transparent barrel, which uses PEI to ensure there are no air bubbles or blood within the fluid, and the nitinol spring mechanism, which has already been CE-certified in other reusable medical devices.

未来计划

Various stakeholders were actively involved throughout the project. At the interventional radiology and central sterilisation departments of the LUMC they are already excited with the prototype and are keen to validate its decontamination and sterilisation and use it in clinical practice with the end users. There is still design and engineering room to optimise the mechanism and achieve a smoother usage experience for the doctors. We have already started to discuss with the stakeholders conducting usability testing with doctors, nurses, and decontamination stuff, and performing sterilisation cycle tests.

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