UC Health’s Sense

Four million people are admitted to the ICU each year, and 25% are experiencing neurological complications. Half a million ICU admissions are due to brain disease, and up to 75% experience clinical worsening due to brain bleeding or swelling. With patients who are sedated or critically ill, neurological complications are not discovered until after they have occurred. Current technologies like EEG, MEG, and Independence are cumbersome and require clinicians to interpret the results. These patients deserve something better, and we now have the technology to do just that. UCHealth has been developing a device that senses a change in fluid in the brain in order to prevent further brain damage for NSICU patients. Another Industrial Design Student and myself began working with them five years after the project started. They needed us to design the physical device that they would be using. We ended up prototyping three designs that are used to gain more grant money to continue the project. If you’re interested in learning more about the project, here’s where you can view a pdf of my process book.