SPECIAL NOTICE
A -- Continuous, Non-Invasive Monitoring of Blood Pressure - Request for Information
- Notice Date
- 4/27/2009
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Other Defense Agencies, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Contracts Management Office, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia, 22203-1714
- ZIP Code
- 22203-1714
- Solicitation Number
- DARPA-SN-09-36
- Archive Date
- 5/16/2009
- Point of Contact
- Deepak Varshneya,,
- E-Mail Address
-
CNIMBP@darpa.mil
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Continuous, Non-Invasive Monitoring of Blood Pressure – Request for information Sponsor: Dr. Deepak Varshneya, Strategic Technology Office (STO), DARPA This request for information is to identify technical experts and concepts that will help DARPA ascertain the feasibility of pursuing a program to develop the capability to perform the continuous, non-invasive monitoring of blood pressure for battlefield triage and casualty transport. To identify these experts/concepts, DARPA is requesting the submission of abstracts in response to the discussion below. Depending on the quality and the scope of the abstracts received, DARPA may choose to hold a workshop to further assess the feasibility and value of developing a DARPA program. The need for non-invasive and continuous monitoring of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) is pervasive across all medical environments, but most especially on military battlefield where rapid triage, stabilization and evacuation are critical to the survival of the wounded. Unfortunately, truly continuous monitoring of BP can only be done invasively, a procedure that is difficult to accomplish on the front lines. “Semi-continuous” approaches rely on automatic measurements using a cuff, which are difficult or, depending on the wound, sometimes impossible to use in the battlefield environment. Existing non-invasive approaches also often interfere with other critical medical procedures. Thus, there is an urgent medical need for continuous monitoring of BP that is non-invasive and flexible enough to be implemented regardless of the injury. Although such a capability does not exist, the increased emphasis in home health care has led to a large body of research and many fielded devices focused on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, which begins to address the needs on the battlefield. The most “non-invasive” devices (e.g., BMEYE, Portapres®, etc.) use finger cuffs coupled with sophisticated algorithms to account for motion and other factors that interfere with the measurement. There is also a body of research using devices based on photo-plethysmographic like sensors that measure the pressure pulse as it moves from one location to another through changes in diameter of the blood vessels. (for example, see “Mobile Monitoring with Wearable Photo-plethysmographic Biosensors,” EEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine May/June 2003 H. Harry Asada, Phillip Shaltis, Andrew Reisner, Sokwoo Rhee, and Reginald C. Hutchinson). However, the devices and research described above fall short of the Warfighter’s needs on the battlefield in several important ways. First, these devices will generally require measurements to be made on the finger where cuffs are non-obtrusive and optical measurements can be easily made. Unfortunately, in the battlefield environment, one cannot assume access to any particular part of the body. In addition, each of these approaches requires calibration and/or a careful medical attention (e.g., correctly sized finger cuff) to ensure accurate measurements. Again, such luxuries are not necessarily available to the medic in the battlefield. Thus, while these efforts provide optimism that this difficult problem may be tractable, DARPA believes that more fundamental, multidisciplinary effort is required. Clearly, a key to solving this problem is to develop a detailed understanding of the physiological signatures associated with blood flowing through the body and to relate those signatures to an absolute pressure or mean arterial pressure (MAP). For example, the dynamic measurement of blood flow rate combined with knowing the temporal changes in blood vessel dimensions could allow calculations of pressure using fluid dynamic models. Making these measurements might require optical imaging and developing mechanical models of arterial wall dynamics. It is likely many other signatures and associated sensors could be uncovered if interdisciplinary teams with the following disciplines/technical expertise were brought to bear. •Medical experience on the military battlefield and/or civilian emergency and hospital setting. •Understanding and modeling of the possible signatures from all modalities (optical, acoustic, RF, mechanical, etc.) that may be relatable to blood pressure. •Expertise in developing sensors that can measure signatures from across the complete spectrum of modalities. •Experience in implementing medical devices and measurements. •Mathematics and signal processing. The purpose of this RFI it to identify technologies from across multiple disciplines to identify areas that would be promising to pursue in a possible DARPA program to develop a continuous, non-invasive blood pressure monitoring system. Abstract Submission: DARPA requests a one-page abstract that highlights the experience and/or expertise that the submitter feels can contribute to the problem of continuous non-invasive blood pressure monitoring. Abstracts should be related to one or more of the disciplines/expertise described above. Abstracts that do not address the focus of this RFI and/or lack technical content will be reviewed. Because of the possibility that abstracts will be presented in an open forum, they should not include proprietary information. Abstracts may be by multiple authors, but a primary author must be identified. To be considered, abstracts must be submitted by 15 May 2009 to the following email address: CNIMBP@darpa.mil. Additional information can be found on the following web site www.sa-meetings.com/CNIMBP2009. Workshop Based on the quality and scope of the abstracts received, DARPA may choose to hold a workshop to provide an opportunity for the interdisciplinary community to interact with DARPA and other interested DOD agencies. This workshop will be by invitation only - with invitations based primarily on the relevance of the technologies in the the submitted abstracts. Some of those invited may be asked to provide a short presentation based on their abstract. In the case of oversubscription, invitations may be limited to the primary author of an abstract. No proprietary information should be presented at this workshop. Information about how to follow-up to DARPA with proprietary information will be presented during the workshop. For planning purposes, a tentative date of 23-25 June 2009 in San Diego is being held in anticipation of holding the workshop. However, DARPA has not yet committed to this workshop and reserves the right to not hold any workshop or change its date and/or location. Response to the RFI is strictly voluntary. This RFI does not commit DARPA to be responsible for any cost associated in the generation of the abstracts or any subsequent costs associated with any attendance at the workshop by any individuals. This RFI does not commit DARPA in any way to the development of a program in this area.
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