AI-GUIDE, or how robotics and AI help to control internal bleeding?

A team of scientists from Lincoln Laboratory at MIT have developed a robot that can facilitate, and often even enable, first-time rescuers to control internal bleeding. This applies to both the modest and the serious ones, and includes assistance in guiding the needle and catheter into the main damaged blood vessel.

Thanks to AI-GUIDE, controlling internal bleeding is expected to be much easier

To control a victim’s bleeding as quickly as possible is often a matter of being or not. That is why damaging the wounds as soon as possible is so important and is best done before the patient is transported to the hospital. The problem is that trauma surgeons are not part of the traditional ambulance team, so the aforementioned MIT team set out to develop the AI-GUIDE device so that controlling internal bleeding would not be a problem for any rescuer.

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AI-GUIDE combines robotics, machine learning algorithms, and ultrasound imaging to guide rescuers as they advance the catheter into the femoral blood vessels. This includes placing the AI-GUIDE on the patient’s thigh where the leg meets the abdomen so that, using ultrasound, the device displays a simple indicator that guides the attendant to the correct location.

In practice, it looks like that after hovering over the target with the device, the person providing assistance presses the trigger and the needle from the machine is inserted into the blood vessel. This needle is connected to a guide tube and catheter, whereby the trauma can be treated directly with fluids, medications, or bleeding balloons. In addition, AI-GUIDE is able to detect its own work and correct problems such as partial vein collapse due to large blood loss, and the first tests on human tissue models and then in pigs confirmed the effectiveness of AI-GUIDE.