The design and implementation of an automatic computer-controlled infusion pump

Abstract

We describe the design and implementation of an automatic computer controlled infusion pump for administering oxytocin to a woman in labor, with emphasis on the hardware and software safety issues. The infusion is applied by means of timed pulses, as opposed to the more usual continuous infusion method. The basic study of the system and its efficiency was described by R.J. Willcourt et al. (1894), while the mathematical algorithms employed were described by D. Pager and R.J. Willcourt (1995), and a patent for the system was granted earlier this year (D. Pager and R.J. Willcourt, 1996). The software safety issues encompass the detection by the system of various kinds of undesirable patient parameters, such as excessively high intrauterine pressure, constant intrauterine pressure, the occurrence of series of contractions closely following each other whose amplitudes are all exceedingly high. The hardware safety issues relate to the reliability of the system, and measures for ensuring that malfunctions are intercepted without the possibility of inappropriate infusion actions.