Healthcare Solutions for Low Resource Settings: Medical Devices

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Healthcare Solutionsfor Low Resource
SettingsMedical Devices

• Engineering and Translational Biomedicine Center
• Antonio A. Garcia, Ph.D.
• ASU Foundation Professor of Bioengineering

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the
one that heralds the most discoveries, is not
"Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny..."
Isaac Asimov
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Center Vision

• ASU students work on their own original designs
  to deliver medical care in low resource settings,
  making them come to life through collaboration
  with faculty and research facilities as
  resources.
• A hunch is creativity trying to tell you
  something - Frank Capra

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A Current Example

• One Labs efforts in creating a low cost device
  for medical imaging
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vMqN7a2zvOl4

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Why This Focus?

• There is great need for medical solutions in
  remote areas, in poor nations, and in general so
  that we spend less while providing better care.
• Large companies look for large profits, but low
  resource setting markets are not great markets.
• Students are not entrenched in the system and
  can come up with very innovative ideas.
• In the New American University, students are not
  passive in learning but are instead active and
  entrepreneurial.
• The ETBC will buy supplies for your idea
• We will also match you with a mentor and experts.

Habit creates the appearance of justice
progress has no greater enemy than habit. - Jose
Martí
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You, Not They, Solve ProblemsExample

• Superglue - invented in the 1940s, patented in
  the 1950s.
• According to an interview with the inventor of
  superglue, Dr. Coover, by the Kingsport
  Times-News
• Coover said the compound demonstrated an
  excellent capacity to stop bleeding, and during
  the Vietnam War, he developed disposable
  cyanoacrylate sprays for use in the battle
  field."If somebody had a chest wound or open
  wound that was bleeding, the biggest problem they
  had was stopping the bleeding so they could get
  the patient back to the hospital. And the
  consequence was--many of them bled to death. So
  the medics used the spray, stopped the bleeding,
  and were able to get the wounded back to the base
  hospital. And many, many lives were saved,"
  Coover said."This was very powerful. That's
  something I'm very proud of--the number of lives
  that were saved," he said. Ironically, the Food
  Drug Administration hadn't given approval for
  the medical use of the compound at that point.
  But the military used the substance, anyway

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You, Not They, Solve ProblemsRelated Example

• From The History of the BandAid
• Earle Dickson was employed as a cotton buyer for
  the Johnson Johnson Co.when he invented the
  band-aid in 1921. His wife Josephine Dickson was
  always cutting her fingers in the kitchen while
  preparing food.At that time a bandage consisted
  of separate gauze and adhesive tape that you
  would cut to size and apply yourself. Earle
  Dickson noticed that gauze and adhesive tape she
  used would soon fall off her active fingers. He
  decided to invent something that would stay in
  place and protect small wounds better.Earle
  Dickson took a piece of gauze and attached it to
  the center of a piece of tape, and then covered
  the product with crinoline to keep it sterile.
  His boss, James Johnson, saw Earle Dickson's
  invention and decided to manufacture band-aids to
  the public and make Earle Dickson vice-president
  of Johnson Johnson.

http//inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/b
andaid.htm
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You, Not They, Solve ProblemsMother/Daughter
team

• Intravenous Catheter Shield
• The mother-daughter team of Betty M. Rozier and
  Lisa M. Vallino, of Hazelwood, Missouri, invented
  a simple device that makes it safer and easier
  for hospitals to provide patients with IVs.Lisa
  Vallino, RN BSN, has worked for many years as an
  emergency room and pediatrics nurse. Like most
  nurses, she learned to improvise methods of
  treatment in the absence of standard equipment.
  For example, nurses commonly used to cut a
  plastic cup in half and then tape it for
  protection around the site where an IV needle
  enters an arm or leg this makeshift method was
  clumsy and could even be dangerous.Vallino
  decided to invent a better way. She designed a
  polyethylene site protector, shaped like a
  computer mouse, that is soft, smooth-edged,
  transparent, and attachable with a single piece
  of tape. The "IV House" is safer, quicker and
  less expensive than other methods of IV site
  protection. It also reduces physical and
  emotional trauma to patients its security means
  less accidental dislodging of the IV ?which means
  fewer painful reinsertions while its shielding
  makes especially young patients less tempted
  themselves to worry, or worry about, the
  device?which means less need for
  restraints.Vallino enlisted her mother, Betty
  Rozier, to help research, refine, patent and
  market the device. Since earning a patent in
  1993, the duo's on-site demonstrations have
  convinced over 100 hospitals to make the IV House
  standard equipment. In addition, Vallino and
  especially Rozier give lectures in the St. Louis
  area, with a special focus on encouraging girls
  and young women to pursue careers in business and
  the sciences.Betty Rozier and Lisa Vallino have
  won local and national awards for their
  inventiveness and entrepreneurship. Meanwhile,
  their IV House continues every year to benefit
  more health care providers and patients
  nationwide.

http//web.mit.edu/invent/iow/rozier.html
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You, Not They, Solve ProblemsMultimillionaire
inventors first big invention

• Dean Kamen and the insulin pump
• While Kamen was attending college in the 1970s,
  his brother - then a medical student and now a
  renowned pediatric oncologist - complained that
  there was no reliable way to give steady doses of
  drugs to patients. So Kamen invented the first
  portable infusion pump capable of delivering
  drugs (such as insulin) to patients who had
  previously required round-the-clock monitoring,
  freeing them from a life inside the hospital...

http//www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.09/kamen.html
?pg1topictopic_set
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A New Frontier?Amateurs are trying genetic
engineering at home By Marcus WohlsenAssociated
Press?Posted December 26, 2008 at midnight

• Meredith L. Patterson, a computer programmer by
  day, conducts an experiment in the dining room of
  her San Francisco apartment last week. Patterson
  is among a new breed of techno rebels who want to
  put genetic engineering tools in the hands of
  anyone with a smart idea.Meredith L. Patterson, a
  computer programmer by day, conducts an
  experiment in the dining room of her San
  Francisco apartment last week. Patterson is among
  a new breed of techno rebels who want to put
  genetic engineering tools in the hands of anyone
  with a smart idea.SAN FRANCISCO - The Apple
  computer was invented in a garage. Same with the
  Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working
  at home with the basic building blocks of life
  itself.Using homemade lab equipment and the
  wealth of scientific knowledge available online,
  these hobbyists are trying to create new life
  forms through genetic engineering - a field long
  dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and
  corporate laboratories.In her San Francisco
  dining room lab, for example, 31-year-old
  computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson is
  trying to develop genetically altered yogurt
  bacteria that will glow green to signal the
  presence of melamine, the chemical that turned
  Chinese-made baby formula and pet food
  deadly."People can really work on projects for
  the good of humanity while learning about
  something they want to learn about in the
  process," she said.So far, no major gene-splicing
  discoveries have come out anybody's kitchen or
  garage.But critics of the movement worry that
  these amateurs could one day unleash an
  environmental or medical disaster. Defenders say
  the future Bill Gates of biotech could be
  developing a cure for cancer in the garage.Many
  of these amateurs may have studied biology in
  college but have no advanced degrees and are not
  earning a living in the biotechnology field. Some
  proudly call themselves "biohackers" - innovators
  who push technological boundaries and put the
  spread of knowledge before profits.In Cambridge,
  Mass., a group called DIYbio is setting up a
  community lab where the public could use
  chemicals and lab equipment, including a used
  freezer, scored for free off Craigslist, that
  drops to 80 degrees below zero, the temperature
  needed to keep many kinds of bacteria
  alive.Co-founder Mackenzie Cowell, a 24-year-old
  who majored in biology in college, said amateurs
  will probably pursue serious work such as new
  vaccines and super-efficient biofuels, but they
  might also try, for example, to use squid genes
  to create tattoos that glow.Cowell said such
  unfettered creativity could produce important
  discoveries."We should try to make science more
  sexy and more fun and more like a game," he
  said.Patterson, the computer programmer, wants to
  insert the gene for fluorescence into yogurt
  bacteria, applying techniques developed in the
  1970s.She learned about genetic engineering by
  reading scientific papers and getting tips from
  online forums. She ordered jellyfish DNA for a
  green fluorescent protein from a biological
  supply company for less than 100. And she built
  her own lab equipment, including a gel
  electrophoresis chamber, or DNA analyzer, which
  she constructed for less than 25, versus more
  than 200 for a low-end off-the-shelf model.Jim
  Thomas of ETC Group, a biotechnology watchdog
  organization, warned that synthetic organisms in
  the hands of amateurs could escape and cause
  outbreaks of incurable diseases or unpredictable
  environmental damage."Once you move to people
  working in their garage or other informal
  location, there's no safety process in place," he
  said.Some also fear that terrorists might attempt
  do-it-yourself genetic engineering. But Patterson
  said "A terrorist doesn't need to go to the
  DIYbio community. They can just enroll in their
  local community college."

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How To Start?

• You may already have an idea.
• Next Step?
• If not, do you have a high level of interest?
• If so, that is a great start!
• How motivated are you?
• Do you need special training or a scientific
  background?
• Good to have, but better question is
• When you start to make your idea come to life,
  will you do what it takes to acquire the unique
  skill or knowledge needed to develop the idea?

"Start by doing what's necessary then do what's
possible and suddenly you are doing the
impossible." Saint Francis Assini
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A Way to Get Started

• The 5 Steps to Problem Solving is a useful tool.
• Define The Problem
• Generate Solutions
• Decide The Course of Action
• Implement The Solution
• Evaluate
• Problem Definition is a crucial step
• How to start defining the problem?

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World Health Organization
http//www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en
/index.html
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Next Steps

• Send me an email and I will enroll you in the
  Blackboard Organization Site
• tony.garcia_at_asu.edu
• Submit your preliminary idea
• We will give you feedback and work with you on
  how to proceed to the next level
• No matter what - it is a great way to stretch
  your mind and discuss ideas!!