It’s not often that you see projects from colleges reach out to fulfill a larger social purpose and yet meet the needs of the market. That’s precisely what the faculty and students of the Biomedical Engineering department at Osmania University have come up with — a range of projects that provide an alternative, industry-friendly solution to several diagnostic procedures, that are simultaneously cost and time-saving. The projects ideated in 2014 by the likes of M. Venkateshwara Rao, M. Malini, Sai Lalitha and Akitha Kolloju have since undergone multiple enhancements and were showcased in many a event like the recent BioAsia 2017, a fest hosted by the College of Engineering, Pune and IIT-Powai.
Aids open-heart surgery
A project aimed at easing the open-heart surgery process, a cryoprobe (an ellipse-based product) here helps reduce the duration, simplify its execution and also avoid the possibility of an infection. In a conventional open heart surgery, the heart is ‘frozen’ and put on a heart lung machine; then a set of points are selected for ablation (destroyed/burnt) before the required corrective procedure is done. This process of ablation takes at least half an hour. The cryoprobe eases that part of the surgery; a circumferential ring of the pulmonary veins allows the ablation to be done within ten minutes, roughly one-third of the time taken in a conventional point-to-point ablation. The shape of the ring-shaped tip of the cryoprobe corresponds the area to be ablated (as it fits the circumferential area of the pulmonary veins exactly). As a result of this reduced ablation period, the period of dependence on the lung machine is also reduced, a desirable outcome of the surgery.
A bladder detector
The target group for the product are the elderly, those with neurological or psychological disorders, all of whom face the indignity of loss of control over the bladder. Tentatively called ‘Bharosa’, the device is actually a waist belt comprising electrodes that detects bladder fullness and signals an alarm when a caretaker can do the needful. A high-frequency current is passed through the body that monitors volume changes over time.
Renal denervation
For those prone to hypertension, prolonged medication often comes at the cost of multiple renal diseases and haemorrhages. This product tackles resistant hypertension by freeing the patient from the signal that’s sent from the renal artery to the brain. The team behind this device reveals that it helps a physician reduce a lot of time due to the multi-point ablation facility.
For HB count
The device eliminates the need for blood samples for haemoglobin count by using pulse changes illuminating the skin. This ensures zero-medical waste and rules any possibility of communicable diseases. The real-time monitoring system also helps early detection of anaemia.
In the pipeline
-Non-invasive BP monitoring device
-Non-invasive glucose monitoring device
-Lung cancer detection by image processing
-Driver drowsiness detection device
Student Talk
“I feel that students should get motivated to know the problems of the society and their role as an engineer to solve them. The inspiration and motivation from the department guided me towards research and be a part of innovative projects. Medical devices are being imported at a very high price so there is a huge necessity for research in this area to enable a cost effective healthcare for a developing country like India and help a common person afford treatments.”-Sai Lalitha
Faculty Talk
“There’s only one private college in the city besides ours that offers a course in bio-medical engineering. So, the awareness of healthcare solutions, product regulation and the development is a bigger need. We are doing our best with our incubator Idea Labs Foundation where students, alumni and faculty can come up with interesting solutions.” -M Venkateshwara Rao, M Malini
(Hyderabad-based colleges interested in being featured in this column can mail to hydmetroplus@thehindu.co.in)
