Description

This report covers the design of an IV (intravenous) bag monitoring system for use in the hospital environment. There exists a demand for such systems, as the currently employed method of intravenous drug delivery often results in patients receiving an incorrect dosage. The system designed aims to provide solutions to the problems faced, by providing for the remote monitoring of the level of the IV bag as well as the infusion rate to the patient. In order to achieve this, two separate devices have been designed and constructed. The unit known as the remote device is attached to an existing IV stand and interfaced to the IV bag. Using a load cell, mass measurements of the IV bag are obtained at a specific sampling rate. This data is then transmitted using the wireless protocol of ZigBee to a unit known as the host where the data is processed and displayed using a PC. The system exhibited a worse case error of 2g in the mass measurement. This allows for the accurate computation of the level of the IV bag but results in significant errors in the flow rate measurement. A user friendly graphical user interface (GUI) has been designed which allows for the monitoring of a number of remote devices. The GUI also provides the user with access to a historical database which contains the patients personal and medication data as well as the monitoring data. The system is also capable of providing warnings if an improper dosage is detected and aims to reduce problems which are a result of human error.