CannulAid

A device for enabling ultrasound-guided self-cannulation in hemodialysis patients.

During our clinical immersion we all visited the dialysis department at Sygehus Lillebælt. In the dialysis department we followed nurses and patients undergoing treatment multiple times a week. In the ward there were different sections depending on whether the treatment was run by nurses (referred to as in Center hemodialysis), or the patient themselves (referred to as in self-care hemodialysis or at home hemodialysis). Between these departments we could identify clear differences in the patients’ well being, their self understanding, mental capacity, perception of their own health and daily lives. There were clear indications that the more self driven patients were better off, so we set ourselves up to the challenge of finding out why and how we could help more patients become independent in their treatment. 

Our device is an accessory for existing wireless ultrasound devices, allowing patients to utilize ultrasound in the cannulation process only with one free-hand.  
It can rotate, so that the vein can easily be identified (cross-section), and afterwards visualize the vein in its full length (longitudinal section). 

Key learnings

Spending time together with nurses, patients and stakeholders during our clinical immersion period was an eyeopener to us on the implication dialysis has on patients’ lives. Not much innovation has happened in the field of dialysis and we experienced a high willingness among the clinicians to collaborate with us in improving the services within dialysis. Furthermore, we experienced a great interest in our project from other hospitals that we presented the project to. So there is no doubt that we have identified a real and huge need and we hope that the solution we worked on can be a future offer for patients in dialysis.  

The Team

We have had a very broad and diverse “toolbox” in our team. Jakob has offered valuable skills in relation to designing and 3D manufacturing of prototypes. Pernille has been very experienced and driven in stakeholder management during the process. Kasper has engaged in the register-based desktop validation of the need and the more detail-oriented tasks. Emilie has provided valuable information in relation to ultrasound investigations.