Elixir

Resources

2007-11-15T22:10:00.001-08:00

Sample Readings

First - have fun and generate ideas : http://www.tdbspecialprojects.com/

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mechanical-Engineering/2-782JDesign-of-Medical-Devices-and-ImplantsSpring2003/Calendar/index.htm

Health Science and Technology Readings
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Health-Sciences-and-Technology/index.htm

Imaging
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Nuclear-Engineering/22-56JFall-2005/CourseHome/index.htm

Informatics
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biological-Engineering/20-453JSpring-2005/LectureNotes/index.htm

Bioengineering
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biological-Engineering/20-010JSpring-2006/CourseHome/index.htm

Biomedical Materials
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biological-Engineering/20-441Fall-2003/CourseHome/index.htm

Smart Wheelchair
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~illah/PAPERS/lopresti.pdf
http://vader.cse.lehigh.edu/publications/icra06.pdf
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1300000/1296893/p243-hockey.pdf?key1=1296893&key2=0112815911&coll=GUIDE&dl=&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618

Vision Multiplexing
http://www.eri.harvard.edu/faculty/peli/papers/ovs/Multiplexing_OVS_doc_OCR.pdf
http://www.fashionablecanes.com/blindstick.htm
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel5/7934/21958/01020456.pdf

Mechanical Ventilation for Rural Areas
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=29010

RF modules podcast
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/08/playing_with_rf_modules_a.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

Intelesense
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2006/6/1/stanfordTechnologyConnectsRuralAreasToMedicalCenters

Joint Rehab -- Smart Rehab Devices for Stroke, Palsy etc
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=455
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1180467
https://eng.ucmerced.edu/acl/sun/research/intelligent-rehabilitation-devices
http://bertec.com/publications/research/papers_products/Benoit-University%20of%20Delaware-2006.pdf
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/brace.html
http://www.caip.rutgers.edu/vrlab/publications/papers/2000_mmvr.pdf
http://robo.mech.gifu-u.ac.jp/jp/papers/pdf/TExCRA026.pdf
http://appneurology.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=196800707
http://www.coe.neu.edu/Research/robots/papers/NYTimes.pdf

IDEA FACTORY

2007-11-15T20:04:00.001-08:00

Some of you who have not won have to make a decision in the near future - to pursue a project or idea that might not win, or pursue one of the ideas below -- simple ideas with a huge impact.

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RURAL HEALTH
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A) Telemedicine Challenge
Similar to the Healthcare Challenge, your task is to bring healthcare to the masses and develop a prototype system. This challenge is quite specific. It would have you work off a phone emulator, the Google Android Platform, or the $100 Laptop Platform to build your application. All of these platforms are easily available from the internet.
Some ideas for applications:
-- Tele-consult - SMS-based consultation between patient-physician or physician-community health worker
-- Disease tracking and patient compliance manager - help to keep statistics and patient records for patients in rural areas. Build an epidemiological database that allows for the observation and prediction of trends and disease outbreaks
-- Smart Pillbox - Ensure that patients take their medication

B) Infant care
Think about the different influences on neonatal care. For example, what are conditions like in rural areas and villages. How could you boost infant care? Ideas to think about:
Incubators -- what are the basic functions that a cheap incubator can provide? (temperature control, anti-bacterial, special lighting to avoid rickets, special lighting for jaundice treatment) Can you think of additional features and problems that currently plague the system? What would a "smart" incubator look like? (think about monitoring temperature, oxygen, humidity etc)
Water and Food purification -- can you make a simple water purifier? milk purifier?

C) ICU
Think about what the intensive care unit of a rural hospital looks like. What are the limitations that the doctors have? Some ideas to work off --
-- Building a cheap, affordable, simple, easy-to-use ventilator that would help to keep patients alive
-- Build a device that can create a supply of oxygen -- this is a CRITICAL NEED in rural areas and has been called for by WHO and the GATES FOUNDATION. If you can build or design a prototype, you may actually get funded by these organizations

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ROBOTICS LOVERS
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In this section there are two specific challenges
A) Smart/Customized Rehabilitation Devices
When people suffer a fall, typically they injure a limb (hand, leg) or hip. Your job is to quickly analyze this problem space and focus on specific injuries - for eg. knee injury, shoulder injury, foot injury - and then design a suitable rehabilitation device. The opportunity to help people in this area is huge. Add to that, the potential use in rehabilitation of sports injuries and you can see that you can have a tremendous impact. The design space is completely open. You should explore the space broadly - but select a specific area quickly so that you can create several interesting concepts and perhaps try to make raw prototypes of the most promising one. There is a lot of literature available on designing smart knee braces, ankle braces that can prevent a fall, braces for elderly people that can "sense" when they are going to fall. Perhaps you can make a crude prototype of a device that can sense if an old person falls down, and quickly send an SMS to their family/caretaker.

B) Smart Cath
A catheter is a medical device that can be used for several purposes. From delivering drugs through tortuous blood vessels and going to the heart... to removing material from different parts of the body, the catheter is a ubiquitous device in many many surgical procedures today. Most catheters have to be mechanically manipulated by a surgeon or doctor. Your challenge is to make a steerable catheter that would be able to traverse a complicated maze-like geometry (similar to a network of blood vessels). Your catheter should enable any or all of the following:
-- delivery of upto 50cc of a liquid
-- removal of upto 120cc of liquid or emulsion
-- measurement of blood pressure
-- delivery of RF energy at the tip
The grand challenge would be if your catheter could be automated and if it had some motion planning or path planning capability

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SMALL IDEA - BIG IMPACT
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A) Spine counter
Your job is to design a fast non-invasive device or piece of equipment that would enable a physician to quickly count the number of vertebrae and figure out landmarks along the spine. For a quick refresher on spinal anatomy - look here:
http://www.informeddecision.com/anatomy/normal.htm
When the doctor places your device against a point of a person's back, it should quickly be able to tell him where in the spine, he is.

B) Vein visualizer
Many times it is hard for nurses to find a vein to inject some fluid into. Your challenge is to develop a tool and/or method to enable them to do so quickly and effectively. For this challenge, think about the different types of patients that nurses give injections to. For. eg. for children, you might want to make 2-3 tools - something to distract the child, and something to make use of the thin skin of the child to quickly find a vessel. Think about how different this would be if the nurse needed to give an injection to a fat person or an old person. You might want to think about using different imaging modalities, or different optics to make use of tissue properties.

C) Blood stopper
Bleeding occurs in a multitude of situations, some of which are: invasive surgery, minimally invasive surgery, accidents(trauma), ICU, playgrounds etc. Sometimes it might occur accidentally and sometimes it might be part of a procedure (for eg - if the doctor is grafting a vein from one part of the body - to another). In any case, different situations and sites, call for different approaches. Your job is to pick a specific situation (for eg. brain surgery) and think about the best, innovative way to stop bleeding in that area quickly and effectively. You can design any kind of solution for any type of problem. It would be good for you to pick a problem that happens often and design a solution with SPECIFIC needs in mind. Some thoughts to get you started:
-- Think about customized bandages that stop bleeding for certain patients (diabetics) who suffer from particular wounds
-- Think about bioglues and blood sealants that can be applied to surface wounds
-- Think about a minimally invasive "keyhole" surgery, where a doctor cuts a vessel and needs to stop bleeding fast. Can you create a hydrogel that can do this?

D) Smart Bed
The hospital bed is a ubquitous piece of equipment that does not get much attention from people. However, this humble "device" is extremely useful in most surgical, pre- and post-operative environments. Your job would be to think about the different situations a hospital bed is used in, and figure out how to design a better bed. For instance, what sort of functions and features might you include in a bed that is used in a hospital vs a care clinic vs for a permanently bed-ridden patient? Can you make a smart bed that would enable easy transfer of patients from one place or one bed to another? Can you create a bed that would be able to reduce the load that a nurse would bear if she/he had to lift patients from one bed to the next? How does a surgical bed differ from a bed where the patient is recovering? Can the bed itself provide some patient monitoring? Can the bed be designed so that it would prevent bed sores for the patient? The problems that you can think of and solve are endless.

Opportunities for Elixir participants

2007-11-14T23:05:00.000-08:00

Our key sponsors have been very excited to see the level of innovation that has gone into the first round of the competition. While it was not possible to reward all the teams, we are excited to see what people come up with for the finals - once they see the type of innovation that is rewarded. Our sponsors are also opening Biomedical R&D labs in India and are keen to find good talent. If you are interested in opportunities - email your resume to acv.elixir@gmail.com and watch this space. We will be posting some more problem areas and if you do a good job on them (eg -smart bed) you might stand a great chance of not just winning the final - but also scoring a great internship!

ROUND ONE RESULTS

2007-11-14T22:50:00.000-08:00

Dear Contestants:

I hope that all of you had a very happy Diwali and that you enjoyed the time with your family, friends and loved ones. I am sure that all of you are waiting

for the results with bated breath.

Before announcing the results, a quick FAQ:

A. I was not a winner in this round. What happens to my entry? Where do I go from here?

This is only the first round. Most of the prize money has been reserved for the finals, where we will reward the hard work that goes into innovation. This round rewarded people who came up with original ideas, and/or who were good at focussing on specific sub-problems within a problem space.

We are going to review your entry, provide individual feedback on how you can improve. Most of the entries in a particular problem area were very closely linked - particularly for the cardiology and diabetes space- the ideas were VERY similar. It all came down to the depth of understanding and ability to focus on specific unmet needs. We are publishing abstracts of the winners so that you can see what we mean. You should feel free to email Abhi for more detailed feedback once the entire list of winners is up.

This round is only to provide feedback. See answer to (B) below.

B. Can I still compete in the final?
YES! This round was meant to provide FEEDBACK to you about the problem that you have selected. You should think about a couple of things:
-- developing more depth in the problem area
-- selecting a problem area that would enable you to contribute more effectively
-- focussing on an unmet medical need and being innovative. Look at some of the projects of the winners

Look at the IDEA FACTORY posting and the resource link from today's posts to quickly think through next steps.

C. I am a winner in this round. What do I do from here?
Being a winner in this round is NO GUARANTEE that you will be a winner in the final. Ultimately, the final result is what matters most and it is important to
be able to FINISH strong and complete a task. You should stay in close contact with the competition organizers in order to make sure that you develop your plan, technical concept and prototype in time for the final.

D. WITHOUT FURTHER ADO ... CONGRATULATIONS:
1142 - MediTrace
MediTrace(TM) is a Mobile Value Added Service (VAS) provider, using Open Source Information Systems, for tackling the threat of spurious drugs in Indian Retail. We see the threat of spurious drugs as an opportunity - To add value to the bottomlines of pharmaceutical firms and importantly, to the lives of millions of patients.Our unique value proposition is centered around the 147 million odd mobile-literate sometime-consumers of pharmaceutical products, and engages pharmaceutical firms as partners in the fight against the spurious drug trade.

1183- Smart Bed
Our idea caters to the needs of people recovering from their ailments in pre- operation or post operation environments. This smart bed is multi purpose and can be used as a stretcher cum bed cum gurney. It can carry on vital monitoring like weight of pateint, blood pressure, temperature of room and is equipped with an advanced patient monitoring system that records the medicines being administered to the patients, the doctor who is treating the patient, case history etc. The bed (divided into two parts) comes with a barcode and optical reading technology that ensures that the patient is not taken to wrong ward. It is also provided with side grills, which can slide up and down and will prevent patients from falling out of bed.

1084- Liver Replacement
Each year many people die of liver related ailments.In US alone, approximately 30,000 patients die from liver failure per annum. Liver transplantation is beset by a scarcity of donor livers and a lack of immediate availability. All the available artifcial ad biological liver support devices available have inherent advantages and disadvantages. Thus there is a need to find suitable liver support devices. We are trying to device a novel Bioartificial Liver Support ,an extracorporeal device through which plasma is circulated over living hepatocytes packed in a bioreactor(Cryogel bioreactor)with the aim to aid diseased liver till it regenerates or until a suitable graft for transplantation is available.

1043- Arogyam
Our team has developed a complete healthcare solution for detecting early stage kidney damage due to Diabetes and Hypertension. Our model is targeting the Rural population, those who frequently use the Public healthcare systems like the Primary healthcare centres(P.H.C.).Our model is based on empowering the ASHA healthcare workers with a Aarogyam health kit, consisting a novel BioMEMS device, a new Semi automatic Sphygmomanometer(designed to help the healthworker)and a Anemia scanner. Our plan involves successful integration of both the health kit and the kiosk at the PHC level to help early detection and management of kidney disease patients.

1202 - OEPT
With our service, people would be able to check their eye power by using the internet at home and at anytime. We will be making the electronic eye power testing accessible via internet in a user friendly way. This machine takes retina image or a small footage of eye lens as input, processes that image and gives the corresponding power as output.

1199- Duocol
To circumvent the problems associated with contemporary insulin therapy a novel, inhalable exogenous pulmonary surfactant based insulin drug delivery system “Duocol” is developed. This technology can be used for NIDDM as well as IDDM patients. “Duocol” is a dual colloidal system, comprising of nanoparticles entrapped inside pulmonary surfactant vesicles, both containing insulin. “Duocol” delivers insulin in immediate as well as sustained release mode. Immediate insulin release to control post prandial glucose surge is achieved from insulin entrapped inside the pulmonary surfactant vesicles while sustained release is achieved by insulin release from the nanoparticle which maintains basal insulin levels.

1117- Microneedle-based Insulin delivery
We are developing a novel semi invasive integrated device for efficient home management of diabetes. The device targets both Type 1 and Type 2 patients across India, who are looking for economic treatment. The wearable device uses fluoroscenct molecules to subcutaneously meaure blood glucose without drawing any blood. This information is processed and directs painless microneedles, modelled on mosquito, to intravenously deliver insulin. The cost effectiveness, painfree and integrated functions of the device will encourage patients to adopt and implement proper glycemic control, neccessary factor for higher quality of life.

1096-Photoacoustic Gluco-sense
We are developing a photoacoustic technique by which to measure glucose levels non-invasively. Our novel method improves upon currently available technologies for self-monitoring of blood glucose.

1198- Wireless ECG Monitor
We are proposing a design for a new wireless technology for home-health–care device for patients who have a risk of cardiac failure whereby the ECG signal is sensed using wireless electrodes and arrhythmia is detected in a handheld device. The ECG waveform, the last 24hr trends of heart rate is SMSed to a call centre via a GSM modem and automatically transferred to the cardiologist or Doctor to a remote server through internet for diagnosis and also to the patient’s relatives for immediate medical aid.

1197- Arrhythmia Detector
The method that we have come up with is using mechanical stimulus to monitor the heart rate, i.e. the aortic pressure. We are utilizing a novel sensor together with sophisticated signal processing to monitor changes in blood pressure at specific locations to detect arrhythmias.

1123- Cardiac Care Unit
The easy-to-use Cardiac Care Unit device helps monitor patients at risk of suffering a heart attack and takes the appropriate action if it detects a potential problem. It acts as a permanent wireless communication link to the doctor and assists patients in making healthy life-style decisions.

FIRST ROUND FAQ

2007-11-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

I am sure that all of you are curious to know what the results were like from the first round. I have had a chance to look at all of our submissions and I am very pleased with the response, although disappointed that some people who I thought had very good ideas, missed the deadline or were unable to enter this round because of exams or other extenuating circumstances.

I am posting the teams that have been entered into this first round and following that, a series of questions that I am sure you will have. Before that, let me answer the question uppermost in everyone's mind - when are the results going to be out?

ANS: Nov 15th - check the IIT Elixir site OR check back to this blog

Also, I am planning to put up 5 line abstracts of the most promising projects (most-likely the top-10)

Contestants:

1002	Telecare-Indian Railways	Healthcare IT
1005	Non-invasive Glucose Sensor-Spect	Diabetes
1016	Kidney Failure Detection	Kidney
1023	CCBORA	Kidney
1025	SugerImpeder	Diabetes
1035	Arrthymia Monitor	Cardiology
1035	Portable Cardiac Monitor	Cardiology
1039	Kidney Failure Detection	Kidney
1043	Arogyam	Kidney
1044	Webportal	Healthcare IT
1051	SMS Consultation	Healthcare IT
1052	Fluoroscence-based glucose sensor	Diabetes
1053	Cardiac Monitor	Cardiology
1057	Arrhythmia Detection and Communications	Cardiology
1058	Focal Glomerular Sclerosis diagnostic	Diabetes
1059	HeartJacket	Cardiology
1061	Webportal - Blood bank	Healthcare IT
1062	AXIOM	Diabetes
1069	HeartBeats	Cardiology
1077	Glucose Sensor	Diabetes
1078	Diabetes Manager	Diabetes
1084	Liver	Misc
1087	Smart Bed	Bed
1096	Photoacoustic Gluco-sense	Diabetes
1106	Immunoassay Diagnostic kit for Neurocysticercosis	Immunoassay
1109	Atman	Healthcare IT
1116	RMDS	Healthcare IT
1122	Glucomonitor	Diabetes
1135	Telehealth-Doctor	Healthcare IT
1142	MediTrace	RF-Drug
1145	Gluco-Lens	Diabetes
1153	Gluco-watch	Diabetes
1155	Drug Delivery RoboArm	Misc
1159	Insulin Inhaler	Diabetes
1162	Arrthymia Detection	Cardiology
1164	SMBG	Diabetes
1166	Ashtra	Misc
1170	Supreme Med	Misc
1175	Sonic Insulin Patch	Diabetes
1176	Heart-o-Meter	Cardiology
1177	Calorie Counter	Diabetes
1183	Smart bed and Stretcher	Bed
1185	Cuffless BP	Misc
1186	SoftCure	Misc
1190	Oxygen Sensor	Cancer
1192	Portable Diabetes Monitor	Diabetes
1193	Bone	Misc
1194	GRID	Healthcare IT
1195	Fetal ECG	Cardiology
1197	Arrhythmia Detection for the Heart	Cardiology
1198	Wireless Arrhythmia Mon	Cardiology
1199	Duocol	Diabetes
1201	Wireless ECG	Cardiology
1202	OEPT	Eye
1203	Smart Glove	Misc
1206	Mobile ECG	Cardiology

Post-October 8 registrations

2007-10-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

For those of you who registered after Oct 8, it might be hard to get the best possible entry into the Nov 1 round because our experience in working with the teams since August, suggests that it takes a team about 2 weeks to really come upto speed on what our philosophy is. In this entry I am going to attempt to familiarize you with the process in order to minimize basic questions and correct misconceptions - particularly around the deliverables and the role of the mentor.

A. Role of mentor
The mentor is a person who will provide some strategic guidance to enable you to work through the design process, identify a solution and then provide some thoughts around YOUR concepts. The thing that I want to clarify here is that the mentor does NOT exist to:
a. Give you ideas
b. Do research that you should be doing
c. Think for you

It is your responsibility to identify the need and think through the different solutions. The mentor exists to guide your design process.

B. Deliverables for Round 1 and final round 2
Elixir is a competition that aims to promote medical design and innovation. We have proposed some technical challenges to get you thinking about design, but the innovation piece is something to be celebrated. To that end, we do not want to restrict people who are resourceful problem solvers. This is why we do not care about which college you are going to, or what your major is. We do care that you are a good thinker and problem-solver. This competition is about SOLVING problems and making good user-friendly designs that MEET needs for devices/systems that will result in improved health outcomes.

Coding in C vs. VB, using .Net or G++ are details that we do not care about. We care about good design and whether your software or device is based on sound reasoning, and whether it works. To give you a "web" analogy: we do not care that you use javascript and XML to program an online content portal. We do care that you come up with a concept like social networking and then CREATE embodiments of that - like friendster, Hi-5, myspace, facebook.

Similarly, we do not care specifically whether you programmed a patient monitor using the MSP chipset from Texas Instruments (Recommended :) We do care that you provided a real-time patient monitoring system that was able to detect when somebody's grandfather got a heart attack and it was automatically able to send an SMS to his physician and family.

Hopefully you are getting a better sense of the competition.

The first round is going to be judged in that way i.e. you need to
- Describe a problem
- Show your understanding of the problem
- Provide some information about other approaches to solve the problem
The above statements need to be described on page 1

- Outline your concepts (1-2 per page)
- Show how they address the problem described before - and how they make any other approaches a little better/address the shortcomings of the other approaches.
For this latter part - think about innovations across different paradigms like affordability(cost), accessibility(make things portable - change the mindset for services that are only offered at hospitals) and pay attention to specific scenarios with specific people. A situation that exists in South India may not work as well for North India. A disease common in some villages, may not be common in the metro areas. Think through these issues and incorporate them in your design ... and most importantly - tell us about these innovative approaches and features.

After perusing the other postings on this blog, please feel free to explore online with google, search technical literature using pubmed or google scholar, and also look at old patents at www.uspto.gov (do the patent search:http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html or use google's patent search).

I have taken the time to write this blog so that you can read it and then email specific questions if there is a lack of understanding.

Submission policy

2007-10-18T12:33:00.001-07:00

I am writing this post to clearly let all teams know that we expect all entries to be submitted by Nov 1 at midnight IST. You MUST ADHERE TO THE GUIDELINES in order to have your entry considered. Even if you are the best team, you HAVE to submit your entry on-time and follow the rules below.

I. In order to submit the entry you need to email me a word document or pdf (preferred) with a clear TITLE and TEAM ID. We DO NOT want to see names in the document in order to prevent bias. Email: acv.elixir@gmail.com. Please also "cc" Tilak Pattnaik, the event manager at IIT. I will provide a special email for him. If you do not know what your team ID is - please email Tilak.

II. Please cc ALL team members and people who have contributed to your proposal. This "cc" list can include professors IF THEY HAVE CONTRIBUTED by way of mentorship and guidance. It is upto you to decide whether to include professors - especially if the research is theoretical and you are translating it into practice.

III. In your email, please adhere STRICTLY to the following format
Subject: Elixir Round 1 SUBMISSION- - -
eg:
Elixir Round 1 SUBMISSION - Abhi Vase - Kidney - EX1022
Elixir Round 1 SUBMISSION - Jnyan Patel - Heart - EX1005
Elixir Round 1 SUBMISSION - Suhas Krishna - Rural Telehealth - EX1008

BODY of email:
a) You MUST explicitly call out ALL TEAM MEMBERS and provide the latest email and contact information. If you have more than 5 team members, that is ok, you must name them, CC-them on the email and provide their latest contact info phone/email/address.

Eg. Team 1055 consists of the following members: x, y, z.

b) You must provide a 5-10 line "abstract" of your target population, problem area you are targeting and a 1-2 line description of each of your concepts.
For eg#1. "We are developing a novel MEMS sensor to detect the concentration of albumin in the blood. This device will form part of a home-kit that will enable early detection of renal failure and potentially help over 30 million people in South India who are currently detected only in the end-stages of the disease. Furthermore, we have also identified a novel spectroscopy-based method to measure xyz, a new biomarker, that we believe can be a better surrogate of end stage renal disease"

For eg#2. "We are developing a new image compression algorithm (ICOS) in order to enable fast transmission and manipulation of MRI/CT images. We expect this tool to enable better teleconsultation, surgical planning, patient management etc. at over 2000 radiology facilities across India."
n.b. ICOS is a fake acronym, you may have some clever acronym for your system or device. Use it here and in the title - if you do.

Thats it. Remember to email me or talk to your mentors if you have additional questions.

Judging Criteria

2007-10-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

It is not essential to enter the first round in order to participate in the final. You must email me (acv.elixir@gmail.com) to let me know whether you want to compete in the first round IF YOU REGISTERED after October 8th.

Your first round submission must do the following:

a) Adequately capture the unmet medical need
b) Adequately demonstrate (via 'a') that your solution is going to have a major impact in some part of healthcare
c) Adequately show that you have a good background understanding of what the problem is
d) It might be hard to solve a large generic problem, you must be able to show your focus on something specific. For example:

Microalbuminuria sensor to enable early detection of renal disease and help millions of patients get therapy sooner
Image compression to enable faster transfer of large MRI/CT datasets
Image segmentation to enable physicians to look at important areas i.e. radiologists can look for brain tumors, cancer, surgeons can look at blood vessel/anatomic abnormality for pre-operative (before surgery) planning
Tele-consultation in rural areas. By specialized system - think through specific issues seen in different areas -- maybe there is a need to digitize x-rays at a small clinic, maybe a need to provide tele-pathology services, maybe some quick eye-testing. Then think through the pieces: Faster, better communication protocols, network architecture/specialized system to enable fast remote consultations.
Smart-bed to enable patient monitoring and/or better transfer of patients between beds, between different wards and something that involves minimal effort of lifting weight off one table to another etc.
Implantable glucose sensor to enable better glycemic control
Fast, reliable HbA1C test (helps diabetics to control glucose tightly - which can solve a lot of problems)
Better drug delivery mechanisms -- could be for insulin (diabetes) - or it could be for another disease or brand new application that you identify.
Better access tools/customized tools for different surgical procedures - if there is an UNMET need to provide better tools for different procedures, you might be able to contribute. Some examples to get started - endoscopic visualization, delivery of drugs or therpeutic to specialized organ like the heart -- for eg. what happens if the person gets a heart attack during an operation or trauma surgery and quickly needs a drug to stabilize?
Alternative ideas to enable early detection of kidney disease - new biomarker? optical method? optical test based on a new reagent that is very reliable and can be EASILY used by the common man
Alternative ideas for glucose measurement- think of different places to measure glucose and different ways to measure it -- improve the ease of use (finger-prick)
Portable dialysis machine to enable better access to dialysis for people suffering from kidney disease

e) Show that you have looked at other approaches to solve the problem and show how your approach is unique
f) Include some clearly labelled illustrations and graphics to give the reader an idea of how your concept works and it must be something feasible. This feasibility research MUST be done by you and you need to think through the relevant engineering details and brainstorm to solve the problems.

More resources for Diabetes

2007-10-08T11:53:00.001-07:00

This post includes some valuable links that outline common problems with different aspects of Diabetes in India. Pay particular attention to this article and this one. Remember - understanding the problem - not just the technical problem is the key to coming up with good solutions. Think about the technical problems specified - but also consider the impact of things like a good HbA1C test.

Good stories about Diabetes in India
http://curiousstall.blogspot.com/2006/09/elsewhere-on-diabetes-in-india-story.html
http://www.passtheroti.com/?p=208#more-208

Socio-cultural Problems - Diabetes:
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/dec252002/1556.pdf

Socio-Economic Determinants and Cost Information for Diabetes in India:
http://www.rssdi.org/1998_july-sept/editorial.pdf
http://www.diabetesvoice.org/issues/2004-09/Socio-economic_determinants_of_the_costs_of_diabetes_in_India.pdf
http://globalforumhealth.org/filesupld/forum9/CD%20Forum%209/papers/Bjork%20S.pdf

Good outline, overview and summary of various aspects of diabetes
http://ww2.lifescan.com/india/diabetes/complications.html

Diabetic nephropathy
http://ndt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/14/12/2805

Insulin-dependent diabetes trust
http://www.iddtindia.org/

Diabetes and Foot problems
http://diabetesindia.com/diabetes/diabetes_foot.htm

Diabetes in Children
http://globalforumhealth.org/filesupld/forum9/CD%20Forum%209/papers/Bjork%20S.pdf

Diabetes Problem Guidance

2007-10-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

Diabetes is a very important problem and in India, it is particularly important because there are millions of people who have this disease. While the basic problem highlights disease management and glucose control, keep in mind that there are several aspects of this disease that you can focus on. Diabetes is a complicated disease that impacts multiple organ systems. As an example

Diabetic nephropathy is a disease that impacts the kidney of a patient. You can read about it here.

Diabetic retinopathy is a disease that affects the eyesight of a patient. You can read about it here.

Diabetes has also been associated with impaired wound healing. This is a very serious chronic condition and solutions range from highly technical solutions (laser, ultrasound) to combination solutions that involve devices and drugs. A google search with "diabetic wound healing or diabetes ulcers" will yield several interesting results. Another interesting recent article if you are in biochemistry or proteomics

Diabetes can result in severe foot complications.

Some ideas:

A) Think about how you can design solutions for patients in various stages of the disease or who are dealing with the effects on the different organs i.e. patients who have eye problems, foot problems, kidney problems etc.
HINT: Think about what could be done to help physicians who have to treat diabetics with eye problems. What could be done for patients who are experiencing these problems? Can you create a device to help a doctor to help a patient? Look at the current treatment available to patients and see if you can enable that in a better form.

B) Think about how you can design solutions for early detection of a part of the disease
HINT:
Regular screening for microalbuminuria and use of albumin creatinine ratio could be helpful in preventing diabetic nephropathy. Also think about the role of a diagnostic that measures BP as well.

C) Think about how you can help patients to manage their disease
HINT:
Think about alternative drug delivery. How can they get insulin better? What stigmas are currently associated with this? How can you enable better glycemic control?

D) Think about how you can help doctors or large medical centers manage patients who have this disease and are in various stages of the disease
HINT:
What can you use by way of information management coupled with tracking devices to enable better patient management i.e. glucose measurement, tight glycemic control, early detection of disease and various stages etc.

The best way to learn is to talk to physicians, talk to people who have the disease and read as much as you can about the different aspects. Then, pick a problem, decompose it into several parts and focus on something which will form the core of your idea/approach. For instance, you might address the issue of alternative drug delivery, or glucose control, or early detection of kidney disease, or develop tools for eye surgery, or help diabetics who have nerve and foot problems ... the possibilities are many. Focus on a problem and think creatively.

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Link to DiabetesIndia
Contains a lot of valuable information on diabetes in India. The best information can be obtained in the publications section on the toolbar that is at the top of the page. Also look under the "Medical Professional" section to learn more important technical information about the disease.

Glycated Hemoglobin is another important area to investigate from the point of view of enabling better therapy and good glycemic control.

The relationship between glycated hemoglobin and glucose
The landmark nine-year Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), completed in 1993, showed that the risk for development and progression of the chronic complications of diabetes is closely related to the degree of glycemic control, as measured by glycated hemoglobin (GHB) determinations (5). The DCCT also provided a large body of data relating GHB values to mean blood glucose. Thus, the DCCT results have set the stage for establishing specific diabetes treatment goals using GHB as an index of mean blood glucose. Here is a link to a national glycohemoglobin standardization program.

Measurement of HbA1C: The accurate measurement of glucose is extremely important in the diagnosis of diabetes and pre-diabetes, where the laboratory values are crucial; in the management of diabetes, where glucose meter values are crucial; and in attainment of goals in diabetes, where hemoglobin A1c measurement is crucial. This article reviews pitfalls that may interfere with accuracy of glucose measurement in each of these three areas and how this inaccuracy may be evaluated and managed in the primary care setting. Three case presentations of disparity are discussed.

Point of Care HbA1C devices: Assessment of 4 point-of-care HbA1C analysis systems

Standardization of HbA1C measurement

Kidney Problem

2007-10-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

Have been receiving several questions around the Kidney Problem Statement. Hopefully this information will prove to be useful. It outlines the current measurement techniques, provides a rationale for albumin measurement and also highlights how this biomarker can be used to manage the other diseases like hypertension, heart failure and diabetes.

One thing to think about when you are going after this problem is that the Microalbuminuria test is relevant to several patient populations because it reflects kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension and heart failure. It should not come as a surprise to you to learn that these diseases are related - blood flow impacts the heart and the kidneys, diabetes is a metabolic disease and also involves a lot of "regulatory control" that feeds into the overall disease state of a person. Neurohormonal control affects BP and kidney function. The applications for a reliable test can definitely impact patients who have different degrees of these diseases.

What is the National Kidney Foundation doing about this?
The KEEP program
Background

Found a helpful link recently:

Albumin can be detected by several methods based on precipitation (boiling, sulphosalicylic acid), dyebinding (biuret, tetrabromphenol, albumin blue 580) or immunologic detection (radioimmunoassay, nephelometry, test-strip). This paper outlines methods and is a useful read.

The same goes for the following:
Microalbuminuria - Quick Facts
http://www.thedoctorsdoctor.com/labtests/microalbuminuria.htm
Testing methods
The detection and measurement of microalbuminuria: a challenge for clinical chemistry
Using glycated hemoglobin and microalbuminuria to monitor diabetes

Accurate measurement of microalbuminuria: a study update
Microalbuminuria and Hypertension
Microalbuminuria and HypertensionII
Cost-effectiveness of Microalbuminuria

Presentation on MicroAlbuminuria: Applications and Detection
LINK:assurancemedicalsociety.org.uk/Cardiff_presentaions_2006/Sally%20Marshall.ppt

Cardiology

2007-10-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

The cardiology problem statement is primarily focussed on ECG monitoring and Arrhythmia detection, but it can be extended into multiple areas: "telecardiology", emergency care, cardiac surgery etc. The competition is meant to provide a starting point for you to come up with solutions that are in the broad cardiac space ... if you are unable to do that - the ECG monitoring, patient alert etc. would be a good starting point.

Healthcare IT - Additional Thoughts and Answers

2007-09-23T13:42:00.001-07:00

The steady stream of questions relevant to Elixir continues. Here are a sampling of answers:

1. What software do I need to use?
You can implement your solutions on any development platform. The only constraint is that your software should work for a demo at the final. In other words, you have to be able to implement atleast a "proof of concept" of your proposed solution.

2. What exactly should the solution look like?
This depends on what problem you are trying to solve.

For instance: if you are trying to compress MR/CT image files, then your solution could just be an algorithm with accompanying software that takes in the MR/CT raw datafiles, compresses them

Alternatively, image compression could be just one of a set of features implemented in a telemedical software solution. The benefit of going after this type of problem is that you can showcase your skills in solving multiple problems:
-- Communications (cheap, effective)
-- Image compression
-- Ability to have multiple physicians consult on the same case
-- Ability for multiple users to manipulate and rotate images (leverage user interface design, image compression and communications) when they discuss a case

Hopefully this gives you all an idea of the kinds of things you could do with this problem statement.

Healthcare IT

2007-09-23T01:11:00.001-07:00

I have been getting several questions about what is required for the Healthcare IT problem statement. I would like to say that we have left this problem area fairly open because we would like to encourage people to be creative and focus on solving an unmet medical need. Some good places to start include:

a) Electronic Patient Medical Records
b) A software that can compress large imaging datasets from MR/CT
c) A telemedical system for deployment in low-income areas - fast communications, minimal bandwidth and hardware requirements
d) A software that can do image segmentation on MR/CT data
e) A software that integrates imaging data, patient records, and the ability for multiple physicians to consult the same case, rotate images, highlight areas of interest etc.
f) Think about what a good communications network solution in a hospital could accomplish (mistake-proof the administration of medicines, reduce delays and waiting, have "intelligent beds" that automatically measure vital signs of patients etc.)
g) Software that makes it easy to track and do clinical trials

These areas are just mentioned as a starting point. It is upto you to find the need, and develop a solution to meet that need. You will see that from the judging criteria, we definitely look for innovation on multiple fronts. The best solutions would solve problems in existing solutions or develop new solutions for an important problem that maybe nobody has thought of solving yet.

There are no restrictions on the development platform. We do require a technical paper and code that can be "demoed" at the finals in January. In other words, you cannot just propose something unrealistic and you must have atleast a proof of concept that we can play with to see how it works.

Elixir: The Philosophy

2007-09-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

Elixir is an attempt to reach out to engineering students in India and get them to think about solving medical problems and improving healthcare in India. This year, Elixir will occur from Jan 25-27 2007 at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai.

Elixir includes problem statements that capture several important medical needs in India: cardiovascular, orthopedic, diabetes, renal and surgical needs among other things. Find out more details here

Whether you are a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, a computer engineer or a chemical/materials scientist, Elixir has something for you.

Remember, Elixir is offering 10 prizes to contestants who submit a two-page writeup (on the problem they are interested in solving) by November 1. With over 2 lakhs in prize money up for grabs, and the recognition that accompanies being a pioneering entrepreneur in a new industry, it is time for you to embrace the challenges and see if you can apply your engineering skills to solve brainteasers that are on a different level.