AuriMED: Myroscope (Spring 2015)

Team: Alexa F. Siu, Alex Shao, Alexander J. Weiss, Alexander McIntyre
Advisors: Michael M. Johns, M.D.; James K. Rains, P.E.
Institutions: Georgia Institute of Technology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Emory University, School of Medicine, Emory Voice Center.
3rd place out of 205 teams in the GT Capstone Senior Design Expo of Spring 2015

Ear tube insertion is the most common pediatric surgery performed as a remedy to recurrent ear infection. During the procedure, the child must remain very still to prevent unwanted harm to the ear; this is particularly difficult for young children. Therefore, surgeons must resort to the use of general anesthesia which alone accounts for more than 50% of the procedure’s cost.

The AuriMED Myroscope simplifies the procedure to one step and one device. It’s exterior design is similar to a traditional otoscope which children are familiar with. The solution allows replacing general anesthesia with topical anesthesia. It provides the potential for moving the procedure from the operating room to the clinic thus reducing pre-operative time, surgical costs, and risk for the patient.

Myroscope close view showing the specula and small tube.

An image of the Myroscope device on the left and the four traditional myringotomy tools. — Comparison between the traditional myringotomy tools and the Myroscope.

Myroscope components: the device handle, specula, ear tubes, and a loading cartridge. — Myroscope and its components. Specula sizes are customizable to the child's ear size. The loading cartridge would come pre-packaged, sterilized, and loaded with a needle and ear tube.

The Myroscope in action delivering an ear tube (purple) into a polyethylene film.

Simplied assembly overview video of the Myroscope.

The AuriMED Team composed of four people all wering like-blue colors. — The AuriMED team: A. McIntyre, A. F. Siu, A. Shao, A. J. Weiss.

This senior design project was an amazing learning experience! My Alex teammates made it extra special. We were a very diverse team, while we were all studying biomedical engineering (BME), each of us had differents areas of expertise and passions that had shaped our BME experience. Probably one of the most stressful parts of the projects (like all others), was finding a good idea. As the Capstone Design date approached, we got more and more anxious yet still found no solution we were happy about. It wasn’t until the last week and a half that the lightbulb clicked and things started working. After that there were many consecutive long nights at the machine shop of testing and building. I am very proud of what our team accomplished and will always remember this as one of my most memorable experiences while at GT.