Wireless Infant Monitor
Team Members: Andrew Bublitz (PM), Nate Grams (APM), Marc Jackson (ENG), Brian Wallace (ENG (EE))
Project Summary: Our senior design project entails the designing and building of a functioning wireless monitor for premature infants that measures heart rate, respiratory rate, and core temperature (vital signs).
Our design incorporates a self powered double band design that allows the user to adjust the band to different sized infants while allowing for correct sensor placement. The vital signs are measured from the chest and abdomen of the infant and transmitted via a wireless connection to a data acquisition system (DAS) and display. Here the signal is processed and displayed via a large screen to the user (doctor/nurse/clinical engineer). The screen allows for the real-time data to be displayed for the vital signs in both numerical and graphical form while allowing room for errors and warnings to be displayed. The vital signs are stored over time in the (DAS) and can be recalled for analysis and the display also allows for the user to input limits (upper and lower values) for each of the vital signs.
Rapid Heart Attack Detection Device
Team Members: (left to right) Bill Johnson, Aaron Anderson, Elizabeth Keyes,
Nicholas Lavin, Paige Ganske, Michael Kallin
Project Summary: The goal of the project is to create a device to determine the stage of Myocardial Infarction in a chest pain patient from a blood sample. The output of the device from time of extraction of blood to physician should take under one hour. The device should quickly and accurately predict whether the patient is having, has had, or will have a heart attack. The device will utilize cardiac markers such as blood enzymes to determine the output of the device to aide in the diagnosis made by the physician. The specific enzymes that will be used predict the acuteness and severity of a heart attack are Troponin T, Troponin I, Creatine Kinase, and Myoglobin. The enzyme will be obtained by immunoassay reactions and levels will be obtained by and spectra-analysis.
Functional Prosthetic Hand
Team Members: (left to right) Erik Prossen, Katie Schultz, Paul Turner (PM), Kristina Forestrom (APM)
Project Summary: To design a prosthetic hand that has a size, shape, and function similar to a human hand. The hand will be controlled by artificial nerve signals to generate necessary movements to improve the quality of life for the patient. The hand will be designed so that it is anatomically correct when compared to a human hand. Besides being anatomically correct, the hand will be capable of many different degrees of motion (best case being 16 degrees of motion). The motion of the hand will be dictated by the patient, which will be simulated by a computer. Artificial nerve signals that model actual nerve signals will be supplied to the hand and differentiated by microcontrollers, which will determine how the hand will move, based on the input received.
Disuse Atrophy Prevention
Team Members: Angela Bell (PM), Mike Cauthen (Engineer), Phil Cira (APM), and Tommy Washington (Engineer).
Project Summary: Disuse atrophy is often associated with the casting of a patient after surgery. When a person has orthopedic surgery done he or she is often left in a cast and must go through vigorous physical training to obtain full use of his limb. This casting period can cause valuable time loss and the physical therapy may cause large expenditures in both money and time. The product being designed will integrate a removable orthopedic cast used on either an arm or leg with a stimulation system. The product will also use a bladder pressure system that will monitor the pressure inside the cast and adjust accordingly.The product is comparatively priced as traditional methods and is expected to reduce or even eliminate the time a patient may need to go through physical therapy for isometric exercises. There will also be a smother transition for a patient from being in a cast to being completely rehabilitated because the muscle will be stimulated during the casting period. Overall, the product would make the entire casting and rehabilitation process a positive, efficient, and cost effective method for addressing muscle atrophy due to prolonged casting.
Sidecar Device for INRange MedicationDelivery Unit (MDU)
Team Members: Alex Puckett (PM), Melissa Cameron (APM), Kirsten Kallies (GM), Nick Belleba (Engineer)
Project Summary: Medication noncompliance is a major problem that exists within the area of home healthcare. It is responsiblefor approximately 10 percent of all hospital admissions and up to 98,000 deaths every year. In addition, medication noncompliance results in $76.6 billion per year in increased hospital stays, lost wages, and death. In order to alleviate the burden of polypharmacy and to reduce medication noncompliance, INRange Inc. has developed an automated medication dispenser for home use. Research has been done to facilitate the design of a sidecar device that would work in conjunction with the INRange Medication Delivery Unit to serve as a transportable means to administer medication in times of main unit power loss, emergencies, and short term travel.
Interactive Approach to Introductory Laboratory Biomechanics and Gait Analysis using Joint Power
Team Members: Jon Barrett (Engineer), Danny Godbout (PM), Beth Moe (APM) and John Osmanski (Engineer)
Project Summary: Biomedical engineering design team 03003 is working on a portable, affordable gait analysis solution for undergraduate level biomechanics labs. The hardware portion of the device will consist of a data acquisition board obtaining angular velocity data from MEMS sensors mounted on the user's legs. On-board data storage will allow complete portability of the device, allowing the user to walk beyond the confines of a lab station. Software developed for this project will interface with the data acquisition hardware to analyze the data recorded. In conjunction with published data, the data obtained from the device will be used to calculate joint power. With an estimated price of less than $2000, this device is aimed at undergraduate laboratories not able to afford a complete gait lab costing over $150,000.
Levodopa Detection: Therapeutic Drug Monitoring for Parkinson's Disease Patients
Team Members: Deanna Haas (PM), Erik Storvik (APM), DarenHughes (Engineer), James Rinaldi (Engineer)
Project Summary: Parkinson's disease is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder affecting approximately 1.5 million people in the United States. As of 1997, the annual cost for the treatment of Parkinson's disease rose to 25 billon dollars. The pathologic marker for Parkinson's is a progressive degeneration of the substantia nigra pars compacta. As cellular loss increases due to this neural degeneration, the dopamine level becomes scarce resulting in a variety of debilitating motor dysfunctions. These symptoms must inevitably be treated with levodopa, the pharmaceutical "gold standard". Accurate monitoring of levodopa levels in the blood is critical to maximize the level and duration of therapeutic efficacy. Currently, there are no therapeutic drug monitoring devices for levodopa, hence the need for compact, wearable, continuous monitoring. The goal of this project is to develop a Feasibility Test Unit (FTU) that would demonstrate the technology and theory necessary for development of a commercially available device. The FTU will demonstrate the ability to sample levodopa levels using Reverse Iontophoresis (RI) and measure those levels using peroxidation detection.
Ultrasound Microvasculature Phantom
Team Members: Jim Rinaldi, Melissa McCormick, Dawn Leyendecker, Alex Kislia, and Tam Dang.
Project Summary: Ultrasound scanning of the microvasculature is an emerging field in Doppler imaging. Applications include, imaging ocular microvasculature, and studying tumor angiogenesis. In order to meet the needs of industry involved in research and development of this new technology, microcirculation phantoms provide a necessary method to test advances. Additionally, it is important in the clinical setting that microvascular phantoms are incorporated into high frequency scanner quality assurance programs.
Our design team will develop a Doppler flow phantom that accurately portrays the hemodynamics and morphology of the human microcirculation. Physiological circumstances within the patient population such as arteriole, capillary, and venule flow rates, microvessel size and depth will be accounted for in the design.
Postmenopausal Female Patient Monitoring
Team Members: Jackie Bohman, Heather Swanson, Greg Michalak, and Melissa Prah.
Project Summary: The medical profession has identified an alarming increase in the death rate of post-menopausal females suffering from a myocardial infarction. The massive myocardial infarction goes undetected by the current monitoring systems. An increasing number of myocardial infarctions have gone undiagnosed in post-menopausal women. In order to save women's lives either the ECG needs to be modified or another way to diagnose older women at risk needs to be designed.
Since the clinical problems of myocardial infarctions occurring in post-menopausal women at an alarmingly higher rate has been identified and found to be of importance and areas where the problem may lie have been identified (equipment and/or difference in anatomy among men and women), the team proposes changes be made to both the hardware and software of the ECG. Once changes have been implemented in a prototype situation, tests will be conducted to compare the effectiveness of the new design to the current ECG device.