Running Head: AUTOMATED HEART 1

Automated LED Heart Model

Adrianne Cooke

Engineering Design and Development

Capstone Proposal
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Table of Contents
Automated LED Heart Model ...................................................................................... 1

Adrianne Cooke .......................................................................................................... 1

Engineering Design and Development ......................................................................... 1

Capstone Proposal ...................................................................................................... 1

Benefits and Purpose .................................................................................................. 3

Passion ....................................................................................................................... 3

Mentors ...................................................................................................................... 4

Mrs. Jennifer Shelby; R.N, B.S.N, C.C.R.N ..................................................................... 4

Ms. Jennifer Breed; R.N, M.S.N, C.P.N.P – A.C ............................................................. 4

Design Process ............................................................................................................ 4

Research Topics .......................................................................................................... 5

Primary Topic – Blood Pathogens and Donation .......................................................... 5

Secondary Topic - The Treatment of CHD in Developing Countries .............................. 5

Tertiary Topic - The Effects of Continuous Blood Gas Monitoring During Bypass .......... 5

Milestones .................................................................................................................. 7

Measures of Success ................................................................................................... 7

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Overview

I would like to take on the task of creating a simplified way of teaching heart

movement/flow, in the form of a clear model with programmed LED’s for my Capstone project.

If the model works efficiently and without major faults, I will present my project to the hospital

my mother works at (Children’s Hospital at Dallas). The presentation will hopefully carryon to

heart students, specialists and possibly patients/families with heart related illnesses.

Benefits and Purpose

After talking to my mother and her colleagues at the hospital, I have concluded that most

people, both new and old to the practice, have difficulty learning and understanding how the

heart flows. This project will hopefully help simplify one of the most difficult organs in the body

to study and understand by effectively demonstrating the flow in a simple, easy to use model that

can be distributed to medical schools/hospitals. In the future I am hoping to further the model by

programming it to show abnormal rhythms and blood flows associated with common heart

defects. This heart model could also help explain irregularities to patients that may have trouble

understanding what the name of the defect means.

Passion

I chose to pursue this project so I could help not only myself, but others pursuing

education in cardiology. A few years ago I decided that I wanted to be a cardiopulmonary

perfusionist when my mother started talking about it one day at dinner; I started reading and

researching the heart and different aspects of the career and decided that that was what I wanted

to do. Whilst conducting my research, I noticed just how difficult it was to explain the heart in a

simplistic manner. One of the most difficult things to grasp was the blood flow, there were so
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many different inputs and outputs in the heart that it got a bit confusing; especially when

explaining it to people. Since then I have wanted to simplify the heart for learning purposes so

more people would try entering the field of cardiology.

Mentors

Mrs. Jennifer Shelby; R.N, B.S.N, C.C.R.N

Mrs. Shelby is a licensed pediatric ICU nurse, flight nurse, and ECMO specialist that

works at Children’s Medical Center, and Children’s Hospital located in Dallas, Texas. She

graduated with an ADN from Trinity Valley Community College, and a BSN from the

University of Texas at Arlington in 2012.

Ms. Jennifer Breed; R.N, M.S.N, C.P.N.P – A.C

Ms. Breed is a licensed pediatric ICU nurse, and a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner who

currently works at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. She graduated from

Texas Women’s College with her B.S.N, and attended the University of Pennsylvania School of

Nursing in 2015.

Design Process

The identified problem is a lack of understanding when it comes to the heart, its motions,

and basic problems. After brainstorming ways this could be solved, I selected what seemed the

simplest solution; an LED heart that shows the pumping, flow, and maybe even defective

rhythms. In Mid-January I hope to be in the prototyping phase of the project, this means that I

will have the thermoplastic model and basic circuitry complete. As I enter the refinement stage, I

am hoping to have one working model that only needs minor improvement. I will be able to see

the benefits of the model in the evaluation stage, through mentor evaluation.
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Research Topics

Primary Topic – Blood Pathogens and Donation

Since this career, and the organ itself relies so heavily on the availability of blood, I was

hoping to do my Research Paper on the importance of blood donation and raise awareness for

blood borne pathogens and diseases/disorders. I believe this paper may be very beneficial to

those who are uncertain on whether donating blood is important, and how they can help save

millions of lives by staying healthy and donating blood on a yearly basis.

Secondary Topic - The Treatment of CHD in Developing Countries

Caring for patients with congenital heart disease can burden those in developing

countries; living with, and treating someone with a heart defect can be expensive. With over 7.3

million deaths worldwide, CHD is the single largest cause of death in developing countries due

to the lack of proper intervention methods. This paper could help bring to light the problem of

CHD, and the lack of affordable/available treatments in 3rd world places.

Tertiary Topic - The Effects of Continuous Blood Gas Monitoring During Bypass

Blood gas monitoring is essential for the management of critically ill patients, providing

valuable information about the state of the patient's oxygenation, gas exchange, ventilation and

acid-base homeostasis. Despite the rapidity of measurements and automation of modern blood

gas analyzers, and the need for only small volumes of blood for any single sample, the

intermittent nature of these measurements may provide only a snapshot of blood gases

fluctuations occurring even in stable patients in the ICU. This may result in potentially missing

short-term trends, delaying adequate appraisal of ongoing metabolic, respiratory or

cardiocirculatory changes, and, hence, limiting or impeding prompt therapeutic interventions.

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Due to the variating adequacy of each individual test, the act of monitoring the gas levels in

patients for long amounts of time can be harmful to the body.

Audience

My main audience will be any interested parties at Medical City Children’s Dallas

(shown in figure 4), and at Children’s Hospital in Dallas (shown

in figure 5). I am looking forward to showcasing this design at

the hospital, in hopes that

employees can make use of it by (Figure 5)

means of education. My secondary

audience (capstone viewers/crowd) will be the test subjects for my

(Figure 4)
main audience, their main purpose is to provide feedback so I can

improve the model in order to present it to higher parties that may be interested in developing

more models.

Sustainability

Judging on the feedback I get throughout the project, and whether or not it (the model)

works; I will continue to work on it and hopefully make adjustments to the programs the model

runs. With a lot of work, and some help from my mentors and others from the hospital, I will be

able to add irregular rhythms and flow to my model in the future. My hope is that in time, this

model can, and will be used to help educate students and families that have been affected by, or

wish to learn about heart defects and what exactly is going on in the body.
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Milestones

Completion Date Task Complete?

Late December Purchase all supplies for circuit/LEDs yes

January Sculpt heart in thermoplastic and smooth yes

Mid-January Setup vague layout for LEDs yes

February Figure out a coding system (use python) yes

Mid-February Write code no

Late February Test code no

March Wire up all the LEDs and run first test no

April Heart model in somewhat final form no

Mid-April Create aesthetics for presentation yes

May Capstone Showcase yes

Measures of Success

Model Success Measures and Criteria

If the model is not defective (or hazardous), it will be successful.

If the model can accurately display data intended, it will be successful.

If the model will help educate viewers, it will have been successful

Model will be successful if it can show a basic beat, and flow of a normal heart.
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If model cannot meet more than 3 of the above criteria, the model was not successful

Audience Understanding Measures

By the end of presentations, the audience should be more knowledgeable about the heart

and its overall functions (i.e. the flow, and rhythm

Primary audience members should be able to critique the model, whereas secondary

audience members should be able to display any new knowledge and show more understanding

of the topic provided. If the secondary audience can name at least 2 new things they have learned

after the presentation, the model/project will have been successful.