The fields of nursing and engineering are undergoing revolutionary change, which will impact all aspects of our healthcare. These advances, driven by highly collaborative and interdisciplinary research, will allow improvements in patient care and outcomes as well as improve the well-being of the care providers.
Highlighted Work and Projects
Focus Groups and Surveys
Understanding how clinicians and patients interact with medical devices and products provides critical insight for innovation. We facilitate end-user focus groups and surveys to support the key developments in both industry and clinical practice.
Product Usability Testing
Drawing on industry best practices, our product usability testing focuses on how real users behave and interact with products at various points during the product development process. We provide usability testing with nurse end-users for medical products at any point in their development.
Cloud based home healthcare monitoring
Goal: Enable large-scale monitoring of vital signals and early detection of emergency situations in homes and independent/assisted living communities
This pilot project (led by Professor Noh of electrical engineering and nursing and Professor Jacelon of nursing) focuses on the big data problem facing healthcare today. The rapid expansion and ability to remotely monitor vital patient signals and then process that data requires development of methods to enable timely, accurate delivery of protected healthcare data in order to create better health outcomes for individuals.
Faculty Partners: Cynthia Jacelon, PhD RN-BC CRRN FGSA FAAN , Elaine Marieb College of Nursing; Yeonsik Noh, PhD, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Elaine Marieb College of Nursing
IV Smart Pump Initiative
Goal: Improve the safety and usability of IV smart pumps by creating evidence-based standards
Our team is exploring IV Pump flow rate accuracy in a variety of settings and use-cases. Potential product development includes IV “smart” pumps that eliminate inaccuracy, inconvenience, and resulting errors with simplified design and new technology.
Jeannine Blake discusses the smart pump initiative here: https://youtu.be/IpZvcbE91gg
Faculty Partners: Jeannine Blake, PhD, Elaine Marieb College of Nursing; Karen Giuliano, PhD, RN, MBA, FAAN, Elaine Marieb College of Nursing, Center Co-Director; Juan Jiménez, PhD, MS, BS, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Recording Body Movements to Assess Chronic Pain
Goal: Using unobtrusive wearable EDA sensors and video recording, improve chronic pain assessment among people who might be suffering pain silently in their beds
This pilot project (led by Professor Chung of Nursing and Professor Du in Mechanical Engineering) involves the development of a 3D vision-based system to unobtrusively sense chronic pain in individuals who might not be able to directly communicate their pain status due to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Faculty Partners: Joohyun Chung, Ph.D. MStat. RN. Biostatistician, Elaine Marieb College of Nursing; Xian Du, PhD, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Robotic Technology Research
Goal: Bring nursing and engineering students together to explore modular, mobile robotic research and the educational ecosystem to create solutions to healthcare problems
The incorporation of robotic technology into the healthcare system is ongoing and already includes innovations like fully autonomous disinfecting systems and invasive surgical devices. It is essential that these new technologies are integrated into the field of nursing at multiple levels, including hospital administration, clinical workplace, and university education. Students need to interact with robots to better understand and utilize this technology in a controlled setting before patient care is involved. This project will provide the groundwork for the creation of a modularized robotic educational tool that nursing and engineering students can use to increase familiarity with robots that may be encountered in the workplace.
Faculty Partners: Frank Sup, PhD, of Department Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Tracey Cobb, MSN, of the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing.
Tablet-based treatment for Chinese older adults with osteoarthritis
Goal: Develop culturally competent and behavioral therapy-based strategies necessary to support Asian older adults
This pilot grant (led by Professor Choi of nursing and Professor Noh of electrical engineering) looks at use of smart devices to help modify one’s lifestyle to manage chronic diseases. The project also recognizes the diversity of different individuals and looks how to provide culturally competent behavioral therapy strategies to improve one’s quality of life.
Faculty Partners: Jeungok Choi, RN, PhD, Elaine Marieb College of Nursing; Yeonsik Noh, PhD, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Elaine Marieb College of Nursing