November 2007

Students Dis-cuss ResearchMonica Liou ‘10

Biomedical Engineering is a very wide field with endless possibilities of research. With more than 20 differ-ent labs at this school alone, it should not be too hard for an undergraduate BME student to spark an interest in one par-ticular lab. In addi-tion to neurological sciences, biomateri-als, and drug deliv-ery, the BME De-partment offers a lab that investigates one of the most important organs in the human body: the heart.

As director of the Cardio-vascular Fluid Mechanics Labo-ratory, Dr. Yoganathan has been actively working in this field for nearly three decades. He devotes his research to the fluid mechan-ics of artificial heart valves and also works with complex car-diac defects. Supported by gov-ernment and industrial organiza-tions, Dr. Yoganathan has medi-

cal collaborations with Massa-chusetts General Hospital, Uni-v e r s i t y o f A l a b a m a -Birmingham, Emory University, University of North Carolina, and NIH.

As an undergraduate stu-dent, Sarah Hooson has worked

in Dr. Yoganathan’s lab since this past summer.

“I really like research be-cause it gives you a hands-on approach to a topic. It’s a good way of applying knowledge that you learn from class and lets you dive deeper into a certain topic or specific area,” said Hoosen.

Her research deals with a complication of heart disease

called mitral valve regurgitation. This is caused by remodeling and distortion of the left ventri-cle, which results in the dis-placement of the papillary mus-cles. This displacement of the muscles tethers the leaflets of the mitral valve into the left

ventricle and there-fore restricts the abil-ity of the valve to close efficiently. Current tech-niques are ineffec-tive, allowing the condition to resurface in five years or less. Hooson’s project deals with cutting the chords attaching the papillary muscles to the leaflets as a pos-sible treatment. H o o s o n h a s conducted a series of

experiments. The valve in the flow tube is run in various posi-tions; first as a control with a low regurgitation volume to show that its position would be that of an actual heart. The valve is then dilated to 2.0 times its original size and the papillary muscles are displaced by 10 mm in the apical, posterior, and lat-eral direction.

ISSUE TWO VOLUME TWO NOVEMBER , 2007

A GT-BMES STUDENT PUBLICATION FOR THE COMMUNITY OF GT-BME

photo courtesy of Lexi Gentry

Then, the strut chord on each papillary muscle as this takes the tension off the valve. With the tension from the mus-cles pulling on the valve re-moved, the coaptation of the leaflets is improved, which eliminates the leaflet tenting into the left ventricle. This in turn reduces the mitral regurgi-tation.

The flow tube in this re-search project is used to simu-late the heart with the flow tube system. It simulates the flow from the left atrium and the left ventricle using a mechanical aorta and includes a pressurized system.

“I usually run two ex-periments a week, analyze, and compare to find a trend in the regurgita-tion fraction volumes,” Hooson said. After the running of ex-periments, data is gathered to understand the force balance on the valve by using c-ring force transducers and attaching these to the chords and measuring the tension on each chord as the valve closes and opens.

“If we can prove that the chordal cutting will release the tension off the valve so that the valve leaflets can increase coap-tation and decrease the regurgi-tation volume, then surgeons could use this method as a way to treat heart disease and prevent the heart disease from recur-ring,” Hooson said.

A Georgia Tech graduate in 2006, Will Liou, has worked in Dr. Yoganathan’s lab since 2004

and still returns to finish his re-search. Liou was interested in tissue mechanics and a friend recommended Dr. Yoganathan’s lab.

“I chose the lab primarily because it was a great opportu-nity. It was a chance to work with Dr. Yoganathan who has a great reputation and I knew that I could receive a meaningful research experience there,” said Liou.

Two major projects that Liou was involved in included studying the strain characteris-tics of the chordal insertion on the mitral valve and determining

the strain char-acteristics with different sad-dle geometries on the mitral valve.

After having graduated for a year, Liou is still working in Dr. Yoganathan’s lab. Research not only facilitates academic learn-ing, but also personal growth.

“My next step involves at-tending dental school. Even though it seems like dental school and tissue mechanics seem to be worlds apart, a lot of principles still apply. Because my advisors had high expecta-tions, I was constantly applying my critical thinking abilities. It involved applying my reasoning skills at its best and these skills can translate to any profession and that includes dentistry,” Liou said.


BMES Pioneer Editorial Board

Editor in ChiefAileen Li ’10

Layout EditorsLexi Gentry ‘12

Michael Zhang ’10

Features EditorRebekah Hamrick ’10

Staff WritersInez Falcon ‘10

Melody Keith ‘09Monica Liou ‘10

Kiersten Petersen ’10

Development EditorsAlice Chan ’10

Patrick Shannon ’10

‣ Students Discuss Research

‣ EMS- Can You Save a Life

too?

‣ EWH

‣ BMES Student Research Panel

‣ Upcoming Events

“Research is a good way of applying knowledge that you learn from class and lets you dive deeper into a certain topic or specific area.”

What’s Inside?

E M S - C a n Yo u S a v e a L i f e t o 0 ?Melody Keith ’09

It’s 7 pm on a Monday, and I’m sitting in the IC, gazing up at a picture of a tipped over monorail. I look around the room, slightly wishing I had someone to talk to neutralize my “new place awk-wardness” feeling. “What IS this thing?” I wonder to myself.

My curios-ity is soon satisfied when I sit down with Dave Druga, a senior at GT and registered EMT in the state of Massa-chusetts, to speak about the vision of EMS.

“ W h e n you’ve lived in mul t ip le smal l towns and communities, you realize that anything can happen to anybody.” Druga has an awareness of the everyday po-tential risks on campus, noting the dangerous chemicals in labs, frequent binge drinking on cam-pus, and injuries on the CRC fields, and takes them seriously. “Ambulance crews have a hard time finding stuff on campus - they have to be es-corted by the [GT] police.” Be-ing an EMT, he's seen cyclist-vehicle crashes, falling injuries, vehicle crashes… "Things hap-pen all the time," he notes.

“GT EMS will be the first lines of service when an individual is ill or injured. It is not designed to replace further steps of care, but to provide quick services when warranted,” says GT pre-health advisor Jen-nifer Kimble, one of the admin-istrative figures who Druga con-tacted about EMS in 2007.

Druga also noted that although GT is not a hazard waiting to happen, it could defi-

nitely do better. “We’re looking to reduce response times to medical or trauma emergencies on campus. Right now it's at about ten minutes, and the goal is two minutes.”

“We're working on for some grants to get started, as far as buying a vehicle and medical supplies, long-term funding sources, as well as legal things to make sure we’re covered. We’ve accomplished a lot of little goals, but we’re just wait-ing for the administration to give us a few green lights.” So it seemed to me like GT EMS would be a great bene-

fit to the campus, but what about the students who are involved? “It's going to be a student or-ganization first and foremost. Two students will be on call at anytime, 24/7, so it won't be a casual thing, but it won't be any-thing too demanding, either,” Druga explains. “We want to give pre-health students some clinical experience before apply-ing to med school." Students will fill officer

positions, handle medical protocols, and undergo the proper training to be campus EMTs. Al-though there will need to be a selection process because the right kind of charac-ter is obviously needed. EMS is a widely instituted practice, so participa-tion would definitely pay off in the future as good volunteer or part-time work. Sure EMS would

be great thing to put on my re-sume, but after sitting with Druga for awhile, I began to ponder the deeper purpose of the organization. This EMS pro-gram, completely volunteer, would function like a small-community fire department, al-lowing GT students to contrib-ute to their own community. "It is a really rewarding experience. For a lot of people who call 911 for an ambulance, it may not seem like an incredibly difficult problem for us, but it's still a problem that they can't solve,” shared Druga.


photo courtesy of Lexi Gentry

There is a profound theme in the idea of students helping students. It’s this kind of self-sacrificial service which leads to strong character build-ing. It is understandable why EMS service would be attractive to medical or graduate school admissions. In fact, one of the reasons that Kimble signed on board with the project was be-cause of the EMS program at Emory, her alma mater. Druga mentions that the director of EMS at Grady hospi-tal actually started the EMS program at Rice University, and he has found that “students in first response are much more attached to the school once they've graduated, and tend to be much more active as

alumni.” So it seems logical that students involved would defintely grow to become a more integral part of their com-munity. So how could I, a stu-dent with no medical experience get involved with EMS, to help further this vision and support the goal that it would offer? Druga says come to the meet-ings at 7 pm on Monday nights in the IC. In retrospect, I realize how ironic it was to feel so awkwardly new at the GT EMS because my participation would ultimately lead to an intimacy with GT students where it would be impossible to feel awkward, and in which case, I would grow a stronger relationship with my

campus and indefinitely leave my mark. What about you?Think you can’t change the world? Think again!


Join

BMES

Today!

www.gtbmed.com

BMES IS RENTING OUT THE TECH REC BOWLING ALLEY!

On Thursday, November 8th 7:00 pm in the student center

Come Bowl, mingle, and have a great time!Free for GT-BMES members and $5 for non-members

T h i n k Yo u C a n ’t S a v e t h e Wo r l d ? T h i n k A g a i n .Inez Falcon ’’10

Many developing coun-tries in Asia and Africa have very limited medical care, while the need is tremendous. Medi-cal equipment is scarce, and technologically far, far behind.

W e h a v e medical equipment – a lot of it. As a matter of fact, hospitals in the United States dis-card billions of dollars worth of medical equipment each year. This equipment is dis-carded because it is old, broken, or sometimes merely because something new and better has taken its place.

A group of students who saw this problem and decided to get to-gether twice a month to fix those broken and old equip-ments into something better than “usable” and ship them to de-veloping countries. This group of students calls themselves “Engineering World Health” (EWH)

Georgia Tech’s chapter of Engineering World Health is relatively new to campus, but the reach of its impact is far. EWH offers students the oppor-tunity to gain hands-on experi-ence in the engineering of and the repair of medical devices while participating in a unique humanitarian effort. GT’s EWH

works mainly in conjunction with MedShare, to repair old or used medical equipment which will be sent to hospitals in de-veloping countries.

The organization meets and carpools bi-weekly to the Med-Share Warehouse in Decatur, GA. These repair sessions are organized by James Eames, Vice President of Repair Sessions within the GT chapter. Eames meets periodically with one of

Medshare’s biomedical engi-neers, Eben Armstrong, to select items that need to be repaired depending on their current de-mand in hospitals in the devel-oping world. A list of projects is generated from the selected equipment for EWH volunteers to work on when they arrive.

Once the list of projects has been shown and explained on Saturday morning, the students break into small groups, and each group selects a different piece of equipment to begin working with from the list. The medical equipment ranges from hospital beds to endoscopes and

blood pressure cuffs, providing a variety of choices for students to work with.

The repair sessions provide experience for students majoring in biomedical engineering by allowing them to study and ob-serve equipment they may work with in the future. Eames states, “For me, it’s a way to do volun-teer work and still learn some-thing that I’m interested in.”

While BME students may be specifically drawn to the program, EWH welcomes all students from all majors. An un-dergraduate BME student does not have significant advantage over the average GT stu-dent in the repair of medical equip-ment. “Some projects are simpler than some people’s home en-tertainment cen-ters,” said Eames. Over the past year, repair ses-sions have grown in size and have

included students of different majors, such as Architecture and PTFE. EWH also invites other school organizations to partici-pate in joint repair sessions.

Last spring, EWH had a joint repair session with Alpha Eta Mu Beta (AEMB) and the Georgia Professional Society of Biomedical Engineers. This year, EWH is planning a joint session with not only AEMB, but also with Engineering Stu-dents without Borders and Al-pha Omega Epsilon.

In addition to giving experi-ence to students and strengthen-ing their hands-on abilities,


photo courtesy of EWH

EWH provides a social atmos-phere for its members. With a few retreats and informal out-ings to places like Rocky Moun-tain Pizza, it becomes easy to get to know those you are work-ing with.

Moreover, EWH values stu-dents’ time and holds few meet-ings and optional repair sessions in attempt to minimize required time commitments that so many other organizations demand.

EWH also has two other facets of the organization. First, it offers a summer program in which you receive training and actually go work in a hospital in a developing country, such as El Salvador. The time there is spent working on devices on-

site and training the doctors in the use of the equipment. It is a rewarding experience offering a unique study-abroad perspec-tive.

Secondly, EWH has a design group, comprised of mainly up-perclassmen. The design group works independently from the rest of EWH, and meetings usu-ally overlap with the repair ses-sions. The design group works on building low-cost medical equipment that can be used in developing countries.

It requires more background in engineering than repair ses-sions; the work done is similar to that of a senior design group. Last year, a solar-powered re-frigerator was designed to keep vaccines at a stable temperature

while being stored in hospitals with unreliable electricity.

Current and new members seem satisfied with the progress being made within EWH thus far. New member Jordan Wynn, BME, has said in regards to her experiences with EWH, “Since I plan to pursue a career involving engineering, medicine, and hu-manitarianism, EWH is ideal for me because it incorporates all of these facets.Overall, the organi-zation is well-led and extremely informative; I am glad I joined it.”

If you’d like to know more about EWH and how you can be part of the solution, please con-tact Inn Inn Chen at [email protected] or be on the look out for their next repair session.


28 29 30 31 111 AM Bioengi-neering Seminar. Shu Chien, Ph.D.

2 3

4 5 611 AM AEMB Undergraduate Research Smpo-sium

78 PM DramaTech presents Macbeth

87 PM: BMES bowling @ Tech Rec11 AM Undergrad Prof Internship Orientation

9 109 AM Engineering World Health @ student center by MLR

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 208 PM GT Sym-phony Orchestra & Jazz Ensemble @ Ferst Center

21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 298 PM GT Sym-phony Orchestra & Jazz Ensemble @ Ferst Center

30 1

November 2007

6th GA Tech-ORNL International Conference on Bioinformatics

8 PM DramaTech presents Macbeth

PURA Awards Announced

Thanksgiving

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mailto:[email protected]

November 2007

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Transcript of November 2007