-
-
Skip navigation
(Access key: S).
Contact information.
Client description:
Work related injury is epidemic among medical sonographers and echocardiographers. Surveys have indicated that more than 84% of sonographers scan with some degree of pain, and 20% sustain injuries that are potentially career ending. The seriousness of the problem is not lost upon manufacturers of ultrasound equipment, but ergonomic improvements to the equipment have not remedied the situation in any substantial way. The occupational injury is primarily to the wrists and forearms, but can also involve the shoulder and elbow. The ultrasound technologists are required to hold and manipulate a transducer against the body wall of patients over long periods of time. Often, a fair amount of pressure is required, especially if the patient is heavy. The ultrasound transducers are light and somewhat ergonomic, but the necessity of a firm grasp of the transducer and a strong push against the patient results in a wide variety of disorders, including tendonitis, tenosynovitis, bursitis, thoracic outlet syndrome, and carpal tunnel syndrome. The situation is further exacerbated by increasing demands for productivity and patient throughput, greater demands for increased image quality, and the development of procedures that involve long periods of constant pressure on the probe. We believe that significant ergonomic improvements can be made in the shape and function of ultrasound probe handles, and perhaps in the development of robotic assist devices to help maintain the pressure of the probe automatically. The need for design modification is particularly great for echocardiographers. Ultrasound scanning of the heart in a heavy patient requires not only awkward positioning by the sonographers, but also the sustained lifting of heavy folds of soft tissue to obtain optimal imaging. As a result, occupational injuries are particularly severe among the echocardiography group. We would like to solicit biomedical engineering design modifications to the ultrasound probes, which may also include some form of mechanical assist to amplify the human action of grasping the transducer and pushing against the body wall.
We have builts a modle/prototype of our design using a steal bar for the arc and a wood slider and PVC piping for the arm. We ran into various problems which will need to be addressed while creating a working prototype. The outline of our prototype and future work can be found in our final report.
| Week | Reporting Period Beginning | Activities |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 23 | Choose project and team roles and meet with client |
| 2 | January 30 | Meet with consultant Prof. Radwin and pick up modle ultrasound transducers |
| 3 | February 6 | Background research and brainstorming |
| 4 | February 13 | Brainstorming |
| 5 | February 20 | Evaluate ideas and choose three designs |
| 6 | February 27 | Work on PowerPoint presentation and paper |
| 7 | March 5 | Meet with client and presentations |
| 8 | March 12 | Decide on final design, hand in midsemester report and notebooks |
| 9 | March 19 | Spring Break/ Meet with Dr. Radwin if possible to disscuss design |
| 10 | March 26 | Work on final design |
| 11 | April 2 | Work on final design |
| 12 | April 9 | Work on final design |
| 13 | April 16 | Work on final design |
| 14 | April 23 | Work on poster presentation and paper |
| 15 | April 30 | Final poster presentation |
 |
Midsemester Powerpoint (Mar 4 2004, 916 kb) |
 |
Midsemester Report (Mar 12 2004, 1009 kb) |
|
Product Design Specification (PDS) (Mar 12 2004, 44 kb) |
|
Final Poster Presentation (May 4 2004, 1105 kb) |
|
Final Report (May 5 2004, 4729 kb) |
|
PDS Revised (May 5 2004, 44 kb) |
