DRIPGUARD: IoT and Edge AI-Powered Real-Time IV Drip Monitoring and Patient Safety System

About the Project

Intravenous (IV) drip therapy is one of the most common interventions in modern healthcare, yet the monitoring of drip levels still relies heavily on manual, periodic checks by nursing staff. This conventional approach is inefficient and prone to human error, particularly in high-occupancy wards where nurses must attend to multiple patients simultaneously. When an IV bag is allowed to run empty without timely intervention, patients are exposed to serious clinical risks, including blocked blood vessels and air embolism, a potentially fatal complication caused by air bubbles entering the bloodstream. Beyond patient safety, the repetitive burden of manual drip checks also contributes significantly to nurse fatigue and burnout. DRIPGUARD is developed to directly address this problem through an affordable, retrofit IoT device that can be installed onto existing IV bags and tubing without requiring hospitals to replace current infrastructure. The system combines an ESP32/Arduino microcontroller, optical/infrared flow sensors, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity to enable continuous, real-time tracking of fluid levels. Its key innovation lies in the integration of Edge AI, which analyses individual flow patterns to predictively estimate when a drip will run out, rather than simply alerting staff after depletion has already occurred. The system is also capable of detecting abnormal flow behaviour, allowing early identification of potential complications. All monitored data is streamed to a centralised web and mobile dashboard, giving nursing stations a consolidated, real-time view of multiple patients from a single interface, complete with instant mobile alerts. Targeted primarily at hospital wards, day-care centres, and outpatient clinics, DRIPGUARD also holds potential for home care and elderly care settings. Its dual-track commercialisation model offering the device as a B2B plug-and-play retrofit kit alongside a SaaS-based analytics subscription positions it for scalable adoption across both public and private healthcare providers. By reducing preventable complications, easing nursing workload, and improving overall efficiency in patient care delivery, DRIPGUARD contributes meaningfully to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), while its retrofit design promotes sustainability by minimising electronic waste.