Technical Evaluation of an AI based Secretion and Oral Hygiene Management System for Ventilator-associated Pneumonia.

Ventilator-associated Pneumonia (VAP), a nosocomial disease, is developed in critically ill patients after mechanical ventilation is provided through endotracheal intubation for 48 hours or longer. This increases the length of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) hospitalization and cost of healthcare. As a result, there is 15-50% higher mortality rate in patients with VAP. However, when VAP is initially suspected, the causative bacteria is not known and thus empiric therapy is provided until the particular bacterium causing the infection is identified. This is continued until the symptoms resolve which takes about 7 to 14 days. Certain centers commonly use Tobramycin and Polymyxin B antibiotics but no clinical data is present to support the case. Coeo Labs has developed VAPCare, a system which automatically removes fluid from Oral, Oropharyngeal, and Subglottic regions of the respiratory tract minimizing human intervention in secretion management thereby reducing chances of acquiring VAP. In this paper, Benchtop evaluation of VAPCare is carried out by performing the Verification and Validation protocols to meet the Product Requirement Description. This study also verifies the reliability of the product in adverse field conditions.