AFFILIAZIONE
università campus bio-medico di roma
AUTORE PRINCIPALE
Eng. De Tommasi Francesca
Registrazione obbligatoria. Una valutazione consentita
GRUPPO DI LAVORO
Prof. Carassiti Massimiliano università campus bio-medico di roma
Prof. Schena Emiliano università campus bio-medico di roma
Prof. Schena Emiliano università campus bio-medico di roma
AREA TEMATICA
Applicazioni innovative di bioingegneria (premio miglior tesi dottorato)
ABSTRACT
Health 4.0 is marking a new era in healthcare, powered by engineering and technical advances such as smart sensors and artificial intelligence. These technologies improve patient outcomes by allowing for continuous health monitoring and boosting the precision of clinical operations, transforming care quality and safety.
Advancing along this path, the Ph.D. thesis investigates the role of innovative fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensing solutions in physiological monitoring and patient safety enhancement, which are paramount in modern healthcare. It focuses on the development, fabrication, metrological assessment, and validation of FBG-based systems. These systems are designed for critical applications, including monitoring respiratory rate (RR) and heart rate (HR), measuring force during epidural procedures, and tracking temperature in hyperthermia treatments (HTs) for cancer removal.
Regarding physiological monitoring, the thesis describes a novel mattress based on sensing elements consisting of FBGs encapsulated in silicone rubber to measure RR and HR over time. The original solution presents a sandwich structure made of different layers of silicone and nitrile butadiene rubbers, ensuring robustness, compactness, and high comfortability of the device. It evidences good performance in detecting RR and HR, even across different sleeping postures.
As regards the enhancement of patient safety, the thesis first discusses the development of new devices based on FBG technology in epidural anesthesia. It introduces both wearable and non-wearable devices designed to enhance the accuracy of epidural space (ES) detection. One device is tailored to fit the syringe plunger, while another is wearable directly on the clinician’s thumb. These innovations aim to assist anesthesiologists, thus minimizing the risk of adverse events. Secondly, the thesis explores the use of FBGs for temperature monitoring in HTs, detailing the design, development, characterization, and validation of custom-made multipoint systems on ex vivo organs like liver, thyroid, and bone. It emphasizes the real-time capabilities of FBG sensors in temperature measurement, crucial for HT safety and success, and demonstrates the sensors’ ability to reconstruct temperature maps, offering valuable real-time feedback to clinicians and highlighting the potential of FBGs to improve patient care and treatment outcomes.
Advancing along this path, the Ph.D. thesis investigates the role of innovative fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensing solutions in physiological monitoring and patient safety enhancement, which are paramount in modern healthcare. It focuses on the development, fabrication, metrological assessment, and validation of FBG-based systems. These systems are designed for critical applications, including monitoring respiratory rate (RR) and heart rate (HR), measuring force during epidural procedures, and tracking temperature in hyperthermia treatments (HTs) for cancer removal.
Regarding physiological monitoring, the thesis describes a novel mattress based on sensing elements consisting of FBGs encapsulated in silicone rubber to measure RR and HR over time. The original solution presents a sandwich structure made of different layers of silicone and nitrile butadiene rubbers, ensuring robustness, compactness, and high comfortability of the device. It evidences good performance in detecting RR and HR, even across different sleeping postures.
As regards the enhancement of patient safety, the thesis first discusses the development of new devices based on FBG technology in epidural anesthesia. It introduces both wearable and non-wearable devices designed to enhance the accuracy of epidural space (ES) detection. One device is tailored to fit the syringe plunger, while another is wearable directly on the clinician’s thumb. These innovations aim to assist anesthesiologists, thus minimizing the risk of adverse events. Secondly, the thesis explores the use of FBGs for temperature monitoring in HTs, detailing the design, development, characterization, and validation of custom-made multipoint systems on ex vivo organs like liver, thyroid, and bone. It emphasizes the real-time capabilities of FBG sensors in temperature measurement, crucial for HT safety and success, and demonstrates the sensors’ ability to reconstruct temperature maps, offering valuable real-time feedback to clinicians and highlighting the potential of FBGs to improve patient care and treatment outcomes.
