It’s that time of year again. Christmas decorations popping up in every store, the smell of cinnamon radiating indoors, lights strung on every roof and tree, and temperatures (slightly) dropping. Yes, it’s the start of the holidays. But just before I can get wrapped up in the season, it’s also the start of many big school deadlines approaching.
These past three weeks were busy with needs finding at Texas Children’s Hospital in Urology, Texas Heart Institute in Catherization Labs, and with Harris County Emergency Medical Services. I had the opportunity to watch a variety of procedures from ureteral stent removals, to PVC cardiac ablations, and rushing from call to call around the city of Houston. It was especially inspiring to hear from the physicians themselves who face a variety of issues within the field each day and on the other side of it, being able to observe their unspoken hardships. Sometimes the latter is where you find the most clever needs. Over the past three months, each of us compiled 100 needs and over the next two weeks we will individually screen the needs to narrow down to our top well-scoped one. This top need will be presented as a potential design project for us in the GMI program during the spring semester.
Behind the scenes in the control room of the Cath Lab. Here I observed a cardiac ablation guided by this mapping technology called the Carto 3 system by Biosense Webster!
A quick update on my Stent-X project- since our last animal study I have spent time reconsidering the design and manufacturing process of the nitinol facet. We have a porcine study lined up for the end of the month and a primate study after the holidays. These constant animal studies have really helped us as a team consistently improve and iterate on the implementation and redesign of the device.
Brainstorming Session
As for the coronary stent project- we’ve reached the point in our class where we are heavily focusing on the business side. I will admit, I am a bit out of my comfort zone as I have never taken any business courses. But what’s the fun of always being in your comfort zone?! I’ve learned a lot about value proposition both in the eyes of the product and customer, the money talk aka financial models, and lastly business models which outline the plan of attack for your product. It’s been great to have the MBA students at this stage because they are very familiar with all the components we need to create and assess for our solution.
And of course the highlight of this month- the annual GMI pie competition in which Dr. Richardson and his family hosted the entire GMI crew! Each of us made one pie and two of Dr. Richardson’s kids entered in their delicious pies- that’s 12 whole pies!! I made a peach blueberry pie with a rye crust. There were several winners that night and it was a tough competition as everyone’s pie was unique and flavorful!
With each of my classes having final projects and presentations, now is the time to either temporarily wrap up the project (that goes for GMI projects) or put all the final touches on (all other courses). These next two weeks will be solely dedicated to that. I’m really looking forward to being back home for winter break and to finally take a breather after what’s been a marathon of a semester.
Halloween + Astros World Series!