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Global Health Technologies

Global Health Technologies - Poster Session D

Poster Y3 - Design and Development of a Low-cost Oxygen Analyzer for use in Low-resource Settings

Friday, October 25, 2024
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM EST
Location: Exhibit Hall E, F & G

Introduction:  Introduction
Medical oxygen is an essential medicine declared by the World Health Organization. Despite its importance, infrastructure to support medical oxygen in low-resource settings (LRS) is frequently unavailable. Instead, oxygen concentrators are used to provide therapy, which requires regular maintenance by biomedical technicians with specialized diagnostics.
Oxygen analyzers (a diagnostic tool which measures oxygen purity, flow rate, and pressure) are crucial for maintaining concentrators and keeping them out of equipment graveyards. However, oxygen analyzers cost around $1000 USD, equivalent to the value of many concentrators. To address this challenge, Rice360 is developing a low-cost oxygen analyzer for LRS.
This benchtop study assessed prototype performance by comparing oxygen purity, flow rate, and pressure measurements from multiple medical oxygen sources across varied flow rates to a gold-standard analyzer.

Materials and

Methods:  Materials and Methods
The prototype integrates a Gasboard-7500h ultrasonic oxygen sensor with a gauge pressure sensor, an Adafruit feather M0 microprocessor, and a thin-film-transistor LCD, enclosed in a custom 3D-printed enclosure to measure oxygen purity, flow rate, and pressure from an oxygen source.
To assess performance, a 3-way tube connected the prototype and gold-standard analyzer (Maxtec UltramaxO2) to four different medical oxygen sources (10L Airsep concentrator, 8L Canta concentrator, 10L Longfian concentrator, Oxygen cylinder). Oxygen purity, flow rate, and pressure measurements were taken at each flow rate of 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 liters per minute (LPM) with both devices. Five measurements of each metric were taken at each flow rate.

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions: Results
Compared to a gold-standard analyzer, our prototype had an accuracy deviation of ± 2% for oxygen purity and ± 0.2LPM for flow rate at 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 LPM, (n=5 at each flow rate) across 4 medical oxygen sources and accuracy deviation of ± 0.4PSI for pressure at 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 LPM (n=5 at each flow rate) across 3 medical oxygen concentrators.

Discussion
Recommended accuracy for oxygen purity, flow rate, and pressure is ± 3% according to WHO-UNICEF technical specifications and guidance for oxygen analyzers. All measurements from our prototype are within this specified accuracy limit.

Conclusion
Our prototype is an affordable solution compared to existing oxygen analyzers and has the potential to improve reliable maintenance of oxygen concentrators in low-resource settings. Additional work is ongoing to optimize the form factor, assess performance under different temperature exposures, and usability among clinicians and technicians.

Acknowledgements (Optional):