Ian Guy, a recent Product Design Engineering graduate, from the Glasgow School of Art, is running in this years James Dyson Award – a competition which champions innovative design engineering geared at solving real human problems. Ian, 20 years old, has spent the past year working with leading anaesthetists at Glasgow’s RHSC Yorkhill to tackle the problem of Air Entrainment in Intravenous Drip Lines.

As complicated as this sounds, Ian explains that “Air Entrainment is simply the problem of air bubbles forming in the infusion line. These bubbles cause a variety of problems, mainly staff distraction which consequently lowers patient safety – you don’t want to be wasting time removing air bubbles if a patient falls into a critical condition in theatre. At the extreme end of the spectrum these bubbles can result in fatality via air embolism – this is when a bubble passes into a patient’s bloodstream and stops blood flow. The solution seems initially surprisingly low-tech, however for me a true solution not only needs to solve the problem, but also be easily manufactured, implemented within an already over-complicated medical environment and also compete with existing less safe products price points, so for these reasons after exhaustive enquiries into more ‘sexed up ideas’ a simple modification to the existing drip chamber was the most viable option, both with respect to the engineering challenge, clinicians opinions and commercial viability.” Ian’s design includes the addition of a small floating seal which prevents “air entrainments from rigid fluid containers running dry – the most dangerous mechanism of entrainment due to the large volume of the air entrained, and the time consuming removal method.”

Ian’s simple redesign of the intravenous drip, could bring many benefits to hospital wards.

This year Ian has already placed 2nd in the University of Glasgow’s Big Idea Award, and won the Science, Engineering & Tech Category in the Scottish Institute for Enterprise’s New Ideas Competition securing funds to patent the device.

“Winning the Dyson Award would provide me with funds to secure the patent internationally and publicity to get under the radar of larger medical manufacturers who have the power and funds to take this project further.”

You can view Ian’s project, see the prototype in action and vote for Ian, by going to the James Dyson Award website.

Product Design Engineering is an undergraduate degree program and more information on the course and this years graduating students work can be found on the course microsite.