Smarter Medical Aids

I read a news item today about a Professor, who is teaching Mechanical Engineering subjects at IIT Bombay, has launched a unique initiative- an annual Medical Devices and Innovation Camp (MEDIC), that brings Doctors, Engineers and Designers together to brainstorm on ideas and develop ingenious medical devices. Biomedical Engineering and Technology Incubation Centre (BETIC) founded by Prof B Ravi conducts the camp and many of the medical devices invented this way have been commercialised. I am listing below some of the medical aids which have been developed by this centre:

1. Smart Stethoscope- The problem was presented by a doctor practicing in rural area, who pointed out that primary care takers in rural health centres are not trained to distinguish  between types of heart sounds. The available digital devices are very expensive and were not favoured by doctors as it worked with head phones. A Bio medical engineer Dr Rupesh Ghayar, along with Electrical and Electronics Engineer K Adarasha and Communication Engineer Tapas Pandey came together and created a device, which can be attached to any stethoscope. It amplifies the sound, filters out noise and records the  data, which can be downloaded on a mobile phone or a laptop and sent to experienced cardiologists or pulmonologist, thus sparing the patient from going to big city for further consultations.
2. Glaucoma Screening Device- This has been designed by Mahesh Mawale, a Profeesor of an Engineering College in Nagpur. This device will be a boon for Diabetics, as most doctors who are treating them do not check for intraocular pressure (fluid pressure inside the eye), as the device to check this is very expensive or the they send the patient to Eye Specialists for this purpose. This device in general is a snorkelling mask fitted with a plastic knob-calibrated with sensor to check the pressure. One rotation of the knob and LED screen turns red (high pressure) or green (normal pressure). This device has already being manufactured and some hospitals in Bhavnagar, Gujarat have already started using it.
3. Biopsy Gun- The Biopsy guns that are generally available in the market are use and throw product, for which patient is charged any amount between Rs 3 to 4,000. This gun also picks same size sample for tests, irrespective of the size of tumour. The length between notches on the needle of this device, which was developed by Mechanical Engineer Sagar Talale, can be  adjusted so that smaller samples can be extracted from smaller tumours, reducing the patient’s suffering. In this device only the needle has to be disposed of, which lowers the cost to just Rs 300. This product has been already licensed to an Indian manufacturing company.
4. Pulse Examiner- this devise was conceptualised  by  an  Electrical Engineer, and is based on the ancient Indian medical practice of “Nadi Pariksha”, wherein traditional physicians used to diagnose patients illness based on pulse readings. Two Electronics Engineers, took this concept for further development. They worked with experts in the field, and using three finger sensors, found a way to take values on the pulse and actually plot those. What was earlier subjective, now has been objective. This device allows one to detect, in  which part of the body the problem actually lies.

BETIC has  become a centre where people from different fields interact with each other. There are many Engineers who choose projects based on their personal experiences. One such case was of of A Vispute ( Engineer), whose mother died due to heart failure, the challenge in this case was that there are many deaths due to artificial heart valves which are implanted by cardiac surgeon. He posed the question- can we repair the heart without external heart valves. A cardiac surgeon worked along with Vispute in this project, and come out with the solution, which is, instead of implanting artificial heart valves, the cardiac surgeon knew creating heart valves by shaping a portion of patient’s own pericardium ( this is a membrane enclosing the heart, consisting of an outer fibrous layer and inner double layer of serous membrane) tissue into leaflets is possible. The challenge was to create a device that would form these leaflets that matched the root diameter and cusp height of patient’s aorta, quickly and accurately. Vispute worked with other researchers to design templates for each combination of size and shape, and soon this device will be a reality. BETIC  has facilitated filing of over 40 patents for various technical aids. Four of their innovations have been awarded   Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council’s Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) of Rs 50 Lakhs. One such invention is a skin spray gun, which harvests skin from third degree burns and turn into fine particles that can be sprayed on the burnt portion.

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Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

29th Aug, 2018.