WPI Research Publication

FALL 2012

WPI Research is the research magazine of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It contains news and features about graduate research in the arts and sciences, business, and engineering, along with notes about new grants, books, and faculty achievements.

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Engineers in the Clinic By Michael Cohen From robotic systems that enable more accurate biopsies and less invasive cancer treatments, to wireless sensors that can detect internal bleeding, to bioengineered materials that help the body regenerate damaged tissues, advanced technologies developed by WPI engineers are moving into clinical studies to help physicians diagnose and treat patients. Shining Light on Blood Loss An unconscious victim is extricated from the wreckage of her car and airlifted to the trauma center at UMass Memo- rial Medical Center in Worcester. Though there are no overt signs of injury, the EMTs know that blood loss from unseen internal trauma could soon send the patient into shock. Fortunately, tonight they have a tool for detecting early signs of hemorrhage: a prototype sensor developed by Ki Chon, professor and head of WPI's Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Yitzhak Mendelson, associate professor of biomedical engineering. The miniaturized wireless sensors are being developed with the aid of a recent three-year, $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Army. They will ultimately be worn by soldiers in combat, but will first be tested in clinical trials in UMass Memorial's LifeFlight helicopters and emergency room. Embedded with mathematical algorithms, the sensors will simultaneously measure seven physiological parameters, in- cluding a novel way to detect bleeding. "The Army knows it can save more lives if it can detect hypovolemia much faster than is now possible under battlefield conditions," Chon says. "If we are successful, the technology will not only save soldiers' lives, but will also help civilian trauma patients." The project builds on early work by Chon and Mendel- son, who have developed wireless sensor hardware and signal processing algorithms that measure heart rate, heart rhythm, respiration rate, skin perfusion, and blood oxygen saturation. Mendelson's lab focuses on the hardware development while Chon's team works on the mathematical formulae that extract physiological data from the signals captured by the sensors. Their technology platform shines infrared and visible light through the skin and then measures how different fre- quencies of light are absorbed by pulsing arterial blood. It is [29]

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