Project Overview

At the Black Lion Hospital in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, their inventory of ~ 40 vacuum pumps (used for various aspiration needs including pharyngeal aspiration, tracheal suctioning, gastrointestinal suction, pleural suctioning, uterine evacuation, etc.) are regularly returned to the hospital engineer for repair. The problems typically originate from the pump continuing to operate even after the reusable glass reservoir is full or overflowing. This causes fluid (complex fluids from patients) to back up into the pump causing fouling and pump failure. The engineer must then spend time taking the pump apart, cleaning parts and reassembling before the pumps can be used again.

On this project we will work with Dawit Getahun, who is an engineer at Black Lion Hospital to improve the reliability of suction machines. Our client is Prof. Beebe who has visited Black Lion Hospital and met with Mr. Getahun about the project. An additional advisor is Tiffini Diage, who has extensive experience in Ethiopia and has started the first medical device manufacturer there. This project has a Global Health aspect as it is geared towards designing for low resource settings.

Two suggested approaches:
Primary - design a retrofit kit to provide overfill prevention control on the existing pumps.
Secondary - design a new low-cost pump to eliminate the problem.

Team Picture

Contact Information

Team Members

• Alice Huang - Team Leader
• Mohammed Hayat - Communicator
• Samuel Jensen - BSAC & BPAG
• Hinnah Abid - BWIG

Advisor and Client

• Dr. Tom Yen - Advisor
• Prof. Dave Beebe - Client
• Dawit Getahun - Alternate Contact
• Ms. Tiffini Diage - Alternate Contact