Grant: DRA : Canada Graduate Research Scholarship - Doctoral Program (CGRS D)

Continuous bladder irrigation (CBI) is a routine part of managing hematuria (blood in the urine), a common condition arising due to infection, cancer, or after surgery. Improper management can lead to clot urinary retention, where blood clots block the urinary system, causing an inability to urinate. This is very painful and requires manual bladder irrigation done without anaesthesia. During CBI, a catheter is inserted into the bladder, and fluid flows in and out to prevent clot formation. Nurses are responsible for continuously monitoring and managing CBI while simultaneously caring for 4-5 additional patients. Current CBI equipment is unreliable, and managing CBI is time-consuming and error-prone. An automated management device would reduce disruptions to irrigation by offering continuous monitoring, adjustments, and alerts for nurses. We want to identify CBI administration parameters that correspond with better patient outcomes and reduced complications, develop an optimized methodology for titration, and build a device to automate CBI management. We hypothesize that this will allow us to prevent complications and support discharge decision-making through better reporting and predictions. We will use our novel CBI monitoring data from over 20 patients to quantify CBI parameters (such as interruptions) and identify biomarkers (such as prostate volume). These data will allow us to identify patterns of care and patient-specific factors that influence recovery and will be used to develop an optimized titration and CBI management methodology. Lastly, we will design and deploy a palm-sized device to completely automate CBI management and reporting in three tiers - alerts, predictions, and automated titration. We hope that patients will benefit the most, as we anticipate that the automation of CBI will reduce complications, patient discomfort, and unnecessary procedures. We also hope it will alleviate workload pressure on nurses and improve their workflows.