Problem: Full-sized instruments do not fit inside the smaller double-lumen endotracheal tubes required by smaller patients. This reduces the quality of care that smaller patients receive and makes surgeons’ lives harder.

Analysis: Our team realized that during single lung ventilation, the second lumen is not in use, and therefore a rigidly-divided tube does not efficiently use the limited space.

Solution: We designed a flexibily-divided endotracheal tube, which serves 97% of patients instead of only 74% of patients.

Flexibly-Divided Endotracheal Tube

In collaboration with thoracic surgeon Dr. Ian Makey of Beth Israel hospital, our team of six solved the problem of getting standard-sized instruments into double-lumen endotracheal tubes. Our ‘works-like’ prototype was tested on ventilators at Beth Israel, and Dr. Makey was really excited about our product.

ClientClass ProjectMy RoleBuilt Excel-based fluid flow models, constructed flows-like and looks-like prototypesYear2012StatusProof-of-conceptCategoryAnalysis, Design & Build