Student Design Showcase and Networking Event

The IntimaSeal is a structure placed over the vulvar region during vaginoscopy procedures to effectively prevent leakage of the distension medium. Additionally, the IntimaSeal works in tandem with the endoscope, forceps and other tools used in the procedure by providing a port for tool access. The IntimaSeal simplifies the process of obtaining clear images of the vaginal cavity by eliminating the need for additional providers to hold the labia closed, while also protecting the fragile pediatric vulvar structures. This enables more accurate diagnoses and streamlined treatment planning.

Student Design Team: Abby Chae, Aiman Rahman, Korie Rudin, Sradha Ravishankar

Septic shock, a widespread infection leading to inflammation and reduced blood perfusion, leads to 11 million annual deaths worldwide. While up to 80% of sepsis-related deaths are preventable with timely clinical intervention, current sepsis detection methods are invasive and costly. Capillary refill time (CRT) has recently emerged as an option to detect sepsis using blood perfusion monitoring, but it is subject to variability and can increase clinician workload. There is a need for a less-invasive, non-subjective, automatic device that clinicians can use to monitor tissue perfusion and detect sepsis in intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency rooms. Perfusion Refill Indicator for Monitoring Efficiency (PRIME) is a low-cost, non-invasive CRT measurement device that automatically calculates and stores CRT at regular intervals. PRIME has two main components: a neonatal blood pressure cuff with a pulse oximeter that wraps around the patient’s finger to facilitate CRT calculations and an enclosure with a user interface to visualize data and toggle measurement intervals. PRIME reduced the variation in CRT by 50% and was more repeatable when compared to clinician measurements on the same subject, indicating that PRIME accurately monitors patient status over time. PRIME also detects deviations in simulated septic conditions (reduced blood flow). In the future, PRIME will be evaluated for clinician usability and undergo rigorous clinical trials to determine its effectiveness in detecting sepsis in real patients. PRIME will be a critical monitoring device in emergency rooms and the ICU to prevent deaths from sepsis because every second matters.

Student Design Team: Majd Ayyad, Shriya Boyapati, McKenzie Davis, Sophie Gu, Sophie Klessel

Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is a sudden loss of kidney function, often triggered by serious conditions such as sepsis, heart failure, liver disease, or major surgery. The RenoAlert adapter connects to standard urinary catheters to continuously sample urine and alert the physician before the condition progresses. Urine drawn into the reaction chamber is electrochemically and colorimetrically tested for lactate, an early biomarker of kidney damage. Ultimately, RenoAlert will prevent the progression of AKI, significantly reducing mortality rates and expensive complications in ICU patients.

Student Design Team: Chris Le, Pratyusha Manda, Abinand Parthasarathy, and Mahima Vaidya
Sponsor: Maxwell Weinmann, MD

Student design team from Pennsylvania

Student design team from Illinois

Fancy Fingers offers an innovative solution to the unique challenges faced by individuals with congenital titinopathy, particularly those with finger extension contractures that hinder daily activities like grasping items. The design focuses on targeted flexion therapy by stabilizing the MCPs, isolating the PIPs and DIPs (those affected by the contractures). Regular use aims to maintain and improve flexibility, slowing joint stiffening over time, providing a solution to maintaining and enhancing hand flexibility and functionality. This enables patients to perform daily tasks with greater ease and independence, ultimately improving their quality of life.

Purvi Desai, Texas A&M University

PADSSY, the Peripheral Artery Disease Screening System, is an integrated first-line tool for PAD screening in primary care settings. First, PADSSY leverages machine learning to assess patient data to flag high risk and aysmptomatic patients and remove the initial screening responsibility from physicians. Second, PADSSY’s low cost and portable device measures flagged patients’ABI and SPO2 gradient to bring PAD diagnosis into primary care offices to prevent patient dropoff.

Student Design Team: Risa Pollak, Wangari Mbuthia, Maha Essaidi, and Fadel Batal

Student design team from University of Minnesota

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a low-cost, convenient at-home treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD). However, the manual exchanges for PD require a series of connection/disconnection and sterilization steps, which introduces many areas susceptible to touch contamination leading to high rates of infection. To reduce infection hospitalization rates DialySafe aims to design a device that simplifies the process for PD catheter connection/disconnection, enhances sterility, and alerts of potential infections early on to enable early administration of treatment and improve patient outcomes Our device consists of an integrated two component system. The automation system component completely automated the process of connecting the tubing in the dialysis system reducing the number of steps for patients and reducing infection risk, making PD a safer and more accessible option for many ESRD patients. In addition the infection reduces the risk of hospitalization by detecting potential infections early on.

Student Design Team: Shereena Johnson, Ibrahim Al-Akash, Vedha Penmetcha, Leora Maksoud, and Marc DeGuzman

Student design team from Duke

Our goal is to design and manufacture a catheter fixation device for surgeons performing operations involving intracardiac echocardiography (ICE). Procedures utilizing ICE require the use of multiple catheters, introducing clutter to the operating room and requiring multiple surgeons to stabilize the ICE catheter while others can work on cutting and ablating problematic tissue in the heart. Our device allows these operations to be easily performed by one lone surgeon by offering an ergonomic and functional holder for the ICE catheter handle. Surgeons can fix the handle in our device and change its translational or rotational position with one handle, adjusting the live image output with minimal effort.

Student Design Team: Alexi Pierre-Louis, Sam Wu, Sumin Jeong, Vivian Lang, Alice Tian, and Jonathan Makhoul

Student design team from Illinois - Med

Student design team for University of Minnesota

For patients undergoing Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), clot formation is a critical complication requiring high-risk circuit changes. To mitigate these risks, we designed a device that integrates ultrasound imaging and impedance sensing for continuous, real-time coagulation (the blood’s likelihood to clot) monitoring. Our design features a tubing adaptor housing two gold probes and an etched region containing kaolin, a coagulation promoter, localizing clot formation at a level minute enough to not pose major clotting risk. An ultrasound probe attached to the adaptor captures images at this location for further processing through a computer vision image segmentation algorithm that calculates changes in clot thickness over time. Concurrently, an impedance sensor measures resistive and capacitive changes in the blood during coagulation using the gold probes. An AC voltage of 20 mV (to minimize unanticipated electrochemical reactions and shock) is applied to the input. The output signal is filtered and analyzed using a preliminary instrumentation amplifier and a subsequent lock-in amplifier to extract precise impedance changes. By integrating these sensors, our system provides real-time, in-circuit coagulation monitoring, overcoming the current limitations of intermittent blood testing and improving patient safety in ECMO therapy.

Student Design Team: Victoria Albanese, Matan Blitz, Ai Bunchatheravate, Katrina Cao, Parnika Mandewalkar, and Mary Mikos

Student design team from Pennsylvania