Demonstration of the Medical Device Coordination Framework (MDCF) enabling safer PCA

Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) is a prefered pain management therapy for patients who have undergone some form of physical trauma (e.g. surgery, vehicular accident, etc). PCA typically is delivered using a PCA pump; when the patient wants pain relief they press a trigger attached to the pump which causes the pump to release a bolus of pain medication. Unfortunately, PCA therapy is implicated in many serious medical accidents due to the potential for overdose.  This video shows how PCA could be safer if medical devices could truly interoperate with each other. 

Research projects involved in this demo:

(1) MDCF / MIDAS - provides a medical application platform which connects to interoperable medical devices and hosts clinical scenario specific "apps" which coordinates the medical devices

(2) Closed Loop Physiologic Control - provides a systems aware control strategy which remains safe even with lossy or faulty networks.