As a bioengineer, I
am exposed to many different areas of engineering. Bioengineering is very
diverse field, and it can include a little bit about mechanical engineering,
electrical engineering, materials science, etc.
I am passionate about innovation in the medical devices and healthcare
fields. Last semester, I worked with a team to prototype a design for
noninvasively measuring venous oxygen saturation, which is the percentage of
oxygen in the blood after your body has used up as much oxygen as it can (so
basically, right before it goes back into the heart/ lungs). Currently, the
gold standard for doing this is using a catheter and sampling the venous blood.
However, catheterization is invasive and takes about 30 minutes to an hour to
insert. Also, once the blood is sampled, it needs to be taken into the
laboratory for analysis, which adds to the time required to provide results.
Thus, my team researched possible alternatives to find this value noninvasively.
We also built a prototype to test out our ideas. As an engineer, I will be
working with a team to invent medical devices. Thus, I felt that taking a
patenting class in college was a good way to start learning about the process
of protecting one's intellectual property. I am excited to learn more in the
class! Looking forward :)
Hi Manali! I wanted to say that I think your research work sounds really fascinating. Are you still working on this project and do you know if there are there any plans to take your prototype and actually manufacture it? If so, I think your soon-to-be-gained patent knowledge would be extremely useful!
ReplyDeleteHi Amy! Right now, we are still in the early stages of the research. We have built a prototype using an arduino-based heart rate monitor that uses the same reflectance technology, but we have not used near infrared radiation technology (NIRS) yet (due to financial limitations). Currently, we are looking for grants and other sources while we continue to do our research! The idea is definitely in the early stages, so we will see where it goes as far as patenting is concerned!
DeleteHi Manali,
ReplyDeleteI am interested to learn more about how your team will proceed with your project for the medical device. Biomedical devices are an important area of innovation given the size of the healthcare industry in the US and the world. I agree, a patent engineering course, like this one, will really let us explore what it truly means to patent a technology. See you in class!
Rahul