This week was all about selecting a project to help Hospital de Amor. However, after seeing the time we had left and all the amazing research projects we could not just pick one project. We decide that the most helpful thing we could do for the hospital was to pick one main focus that we could help prototype and a couple of other projects we could help research. Additionally, with the approval of hospital de Amor and their researchers, we had planned to present some of these projects to Rice University engineering master’s students and engineering senior capstone groups. The hope would be that they will partner with the hospital and help the project.
The project we chose for our main focus was a project that came from the hospital’s mobile oral cancer prevention unit. We are helping to manufacture a device that can process oral cancer biopsies within the mobile unit. This would allow the biopsy to be scanned by a digital microscope and sent to a pathologist to diagnose. A device like this would greatly improve diagnose times for people who lived in rural areas or people who do not have access to a pathologist.
On top of the main topic, we choose two other projects to help with. The first project is in partnership with Unnwave, a startup that is working with the hospital. We are helping them do research about different methods and wavelength spectrums to analysis skin lesions and other nevi. A product that could do this effectively, would allow people to have an early warning system to something on their skin should be seen by a dermatologist for the potential of being cancer. Another project we are working on is to do some background research on how to increase mammograms in unrepresented communities in Brazil. We want to complete research that focuses on why and what is stopping these groups from receiving mammograms. At the end of the research, we want to be able brainstorm or even recommend a course of action for the hospital to take in order to help improve this groups mammogram numbers.
Lastly, we are planning to present 3 projects to Rice University so that others with more time and qualification can help these projects come into fruition. The first product is a 3D body mapping device that Unnawave along with Hospital de Amor wants to create that would help patient who are at high risk for skin cancer. Another project that the digital health department wants to do is to create a machine learning algorithm that would make it easier for doctors to prioritize certain lung cancer images based on the likelihood that they contain cancer. There is a project by the pathology department that would create a specialized device that would help the pathology department more accurately decalcify bones. All of these projects are very important, and Rice University has the people and expertise to help with these endeavors.
I am super excited to be a part of so many amazing projects that have so much direct impact. I have learned so much about current advancements in cancer treatment and cancer screening. I am starting to realize how many projects build off of each other to come together to make a very difficult problem feasibly. I love the work that is done here and how passionate they are in ensuring everyone has access to state of the art cancer treatment and screening.