Mark Ansermino, left, and Guy Dumont were working on a device in 2005 to aid people monitoring patients during surgery. Ward Perrin / Vancouver Sun
A deceptively simple device invented at the University of B.C. is saving lives in the worlds most impoverished places.
Called the Phone Oximeter, it clips onto a persons fingertip and is connected by wire to a smartphones audio port. By measuring blood-oxygen levels and heart and breathing rates with unprecedented simplicity, portability and affordability, its enabling easier diagnosis of illness in Mozambique, Pakistan and Uganda.
How it came to be at UBC reveals the magic of universities.
Fifteen years ago, electrical engineer Guy Dumont, an expert in creating intelligent automated systems, met Mark Ansermino, an anesthesiologist who wanted to improve measurement of vital signs during surgery. From that first encounter between two complementary faculty members, a string of inventions followed.
The Phone Oximeters genesis at a university was no accident. UBC, like so many of its peer institutions, attracts experts in diverse fields. Brought together into a larger community, they sometimes share ideas and wind up doing things they could never achieve or even dream of achieving on their own.
But when that lightning does strike, its often by accident or the result of occasional get-togethers. If only we could make such interactions a regular feature on our campuses, imagine the ingenuity that would spring forth.
Now we are now doing just that, with UBCs latest creation: a school of biomedical engineering.
This new cluster of faculty and students, a joint venture of the faculties of medicine and applied science, will break down antiquated academic boundaries. We want to replicate many times over the genius of the Phone Oximeter applying an engineering mindset to disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
That could mean medical devices like the Phone Oximeter. But it also means extending engineering into realms that most people have a hard time grasping: the splicing of genes, the rearrangement of proteins and the cultivation of stem cells, which can be coaxed into repairing or even replacing damaged tissues or organs.
This is a squishier world than many engineers are used to. But its governed by the same physical principles that all engineering students must master. And its just as yielding to their quantitative approach and creative design skills, which offer new solutions to societys major health challenges, including cancer, neurological disease, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
UBC is the first university in Western Canada to recognize the importance of this burgeoning field with a school of its own. And we are doing it at a propitious time, as B.C. diversifies its resource-based economy by cultivating a vibrant tech sector, and as the province joins the University of Washington in creating the Cascadia Urban Analytics Cooperative, emulating the success of such regional tech hubs as Silicon Valley, North Carolinas Research Triangle and Bostons Route 128 Corridor.
To fulfil even part of that tech-based vision, higher education must position itself several steps ahead by preparing students to readily enter that economy from the moment they graduate, and to play leading roles in both established companies and new ventures. Playing catch-up isnt an option we need to cultivate the talent now or risk having that vision wither for lack of local talent.
The Phone Oximeter, invented at the University of B.C., clips onto a persons fingertip and is connected by wire to a smartphones audio port. By measuring blood-oxygen levels and heart and breathing rates with unprecedented simplicity, portability and affordability, its enabling easier diagnosis of illness in Mozambique, Pakistan and Uganda. Handout / PNG
Clearly, there is a demand for such training. The faculty of applied science started offering masters degrees and doctorates in biomedical engineering a mere seven years ago, and applications have increased steadily to almost 200 in 2016.
The new school will provide those students expected to number about 90 this year with a distinct, high-profile home, signalling to future students our commitment to be a leader in this field. In the years ahead we hope to extend the talent pipeline even further by offering bachelors degrees in biomedical engineering as well.
That higher profile will also help attract the most promising or sought-after biomedical engineering faculty. In fact, it already has: Peter Zandstra, most recently of the University of Toronto, has joined UBC to become the schools first director.
Zandstra wont need much help finding his way around he spent five years at UBC earning his doctorate in biotechnology and chemical engineering. But we recruited him for his ingenuity in growing stem cells, his mathematical modelling to predict how stem cells behave and how they can be controlled, and his success in generating human tissue for drug testing or treatment. On top of all that, he has proven leadership skills, honed from his experience steering large academic research groups and startup companies.
Joining him in the months and years ahead will be seven other new faculty members, along with 20 current faculty members jointly appointed from their current departments, including electrical engineer Tim Salcudean, who has proudly ignored the obsolete divisions that once separated him from his medical colleagues.
Salcudean is advancing two innovations that have already transformed patient care: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound. He is making those technologies more revealing by bringing digital analysis to images that are now mostly eyeballed. He is also making them more useful by superimposing MRI and ultrasound images onto magnified images of a surgical field, so surgeons can see underneath the tissue on which theyre operating, and thus spot patches of cancer that would normally be hidden.
These arent an academics theoretical musings. Thanks to UBCs partnerships with the provinces health system, Salcudean has been able to team up with UBC urologist Peter Black to successfully test ultrasound and MRI image-guided techniques on 27 patients with prostate cancer. Based on those results, there are plans for more.
We cant simply leave those kinds of advances to the random happenstance of the occasional symposium or accidental meeting. The stakes in terms of lives saved or quality of life are too high.
Our new school of biomedical engineering will bring health scientists, clinicians and engineers together on a daily basis and provide them with the space and the tools to collaborate. Just as important, it will bring graduate students and medical students into that collaboration to learn from it, emulate it and, we hope, take it in directions that we havent yet imagined.
Dermot Kelleher is dean of the faculty of medicine and James Olson is interim dean of the faculty of applied science at the University of B.C.
CLICK HERE to report a typo.
Is there more to this story? Wed like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.
Link:
Opinion: UBC erases boundaries between engineering and health - Vancouver Sun
- Recruitment - Wikipedia - January 27th, 2017 [January 27th, 2017]
- Resource-based economy and pay-it-forward | The Moneyless ... - January 30th, 2017 [January 30th, 2017]
- A Resource Based Economy - worldsocialism.org - January 30th, 2017 [January 30th, 2017]
- Trump's Flawed Logic Regarding US-Mexico Relations - Fair Observer - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Economic freedom achievable through knowledge based economy, innovative technical skill development - President - Asian Tribune - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Younger generation inheritors of knowledge-based economy: President - Lanka Business Online - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Morguard - 2017 Real Estate Investment Trends to Watch in Canada - Canada NewsWire (press release) - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Ask Yourself These Two Questions About America's Economic Future - Fortune - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- The Informal Economy and Decent Work: A Policy Resource ... - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Thunder Bay's population experiencing low growth - Tbnewswatch.com - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Substantial investment in agriculture needed to ensure enough food for all - Daily Nation - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Can Russia project power while battered by economic woes? - Asia Times - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- When will Russia finally break its 'resource curse'? - Russia Direct - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- TEA & TWO SLICES | On Giant Snow Penises And Christy Clark's Shudder-Worthy Interview - Scout Magazine (blog) - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Can Russia project power while battered by economic woes ... - MENAFN.COM - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- Siemens backs Qatar''s economic ambitions with innovation - MENAFN.COM - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- The 'Dutch disease' reexamined: Resource booms can benefit the wider economy - USAPP American Politics and Policy (blog) - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Charles Lawton: Here's a proposal to create real equality of job opportunity - Press Herald - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- India can't write-off coal-based energy so soon: World Coal Association - Economic Times - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- The pathologies of redistributive resource transfers - Livemint - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Jessica Wright: Well-managed farmland benefits community, watershed - Conway Daily Sun - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Evaluate FLSA for its Ability to Keep Pace with Today's Workplace, SHRM Tells House Subcommittee - SHRM - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Officials hope fiber optic expansion helps diversify Decatur's economy - The Decatur Daily - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- 10th Biennial Nehalem Bay Estuary Cleanup set - Tillamook Headlight-Herald - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Howard gives Barnett a hand on hustings - The West Australian - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- EDITORIAL COMMENT: Let's celebrate President's birthday with ... - Chronicle - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Kentucky Main Street Program Communities Contributed $110M to State Economy in 2016 - WMKY - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- GM, Steelcase see a web of opportunity in the circular economy - GreenBiz - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- The sputtering energy economy: Can it be revved up? - Meridian Star - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- The difference between Malcolm Turnbull and Justin Trudeau - The Australian Financial Review - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- In the Face of a Trump Environmental Rollback, California Stands in ... - Yale Environment 360 - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Report: Boundary Waters nets $77 million from summer visitors - Duluth News Tribune - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- DENIM SPIRIT: An economy based on abundance - Finger Lakes Times - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- HR International to hold confab on African economy - Guardian - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Event promotes innovation and technology expansion - News - Castlegar News - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- The Venus Project Plans to Bring Humanity to the Next Stage of Social Evolution. Here's How. - Futurism - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Best returns since 1900? Resource based countries, including ... - Financial Post - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Economic growth projected for Saskatchewan in 2017 | Regina ... - Regina Leader-Post - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Energy as a Model for US-Mexico Economic Partnership - RealClearEnergy - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Science and Technology: Minister says FG will harness natural ... - Pulse Nigeria - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Montana Jobs Not Well Positioned - Big Sky Business Journal - Big Sky Business Journal - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- The future of WA's economy: Life beyond mining - WAtoday - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- Verdant Zeal set to celebrate decade of providing media solutions - Guardian - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Lessons from Canada's scientific resistance - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- St Ann can do better Earl Jarrett - Jamaica Gleaner - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Firm canvasses technology strategy - The Nation Newspaper - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Mandryk: Next Saskatchewan boom needs to be from our heritage fund - Regina Leader-Post - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Bank of Canada channels Al Gore - Toronto Sun - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Australia's economy has been growing for 25 years straight Quartz - Quartz - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- The Venus Project envisions a sustainable redesign of our cities and civilization - Inhabitat - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- State's high-tech hits $1 billion economic milestone - Daily Inter Lake - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- The startup economy - Canadian Lawyer Magazine - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Nehalem Bay Estuary Cleanup - North Coast Citizen - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Pipelines to be a 'fundamental' issue for NDP leadership race: Julian - Hill Times (subscription) - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Prime Minister Trudeau, no fan of the middle class - Hill Times (subscription) - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Finally, Democrats Have A Pro Wrestler In Their Corner - Huffington Post - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- WA election: Labor outlines campaign costings and debt reduction plan - ABC Online - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- WA election: Death threats, One Nation legal action, stadium stoush campaign trail action - ABC Online - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- Russia, Israeli firm agree to invest $100 mln in Russia's dairy industry - Reuters - March 10th, 2017 [March 10th, 2017]
- Maine deserves a chance to capitalize on the North Woods monument - Bangor Daily News - March 10th, 2017 [March 10th, 2017]
- MAN, RMRDC, others to promote resource-based MSMEs,funding - The Nation Newspaper - March 10th, 2017 [March 10th, 2017]
- Jobs, education focus of Gov. Brown's Prineville visit - KTVZ - KTVZ - March 10th, 2017 [March 10th, 2017]
- HIKE NETARTS BAYOCEAN SPIT - North Coast Citizen - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Jobs versus or for the environment? - Budgeeter News - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Canada Invests $325 Million in the Fish and Seafood Sector - Yahoo Finance - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- We are taking steps to overhaul economy through knowledge-based ... - TheNewsGuru (satire) (press release) (blog) - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Canada Invests $325 Million in the Fish and Seafood Sector - Marketwired (press release) - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- Saskatchewan gender, immigrant wage gaps among widest in Canada - Saskatoon StarPhoenix - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Week in Film: Endless LOLs, an Acid Western, and Great Advice ... - Bedford + Bowery - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Famous fish the focus of 'steelhead ecology' hike - Tillamook Headlight-Herald - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- 'Explore Nature' sets Cape Lookout hike - Tillamook Headlight-Herald - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Califonria Lawmakers approve billion dollar gas tax | KBAK - Bakersfield Now - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Globe editorial: On pipelines, Ottawa must have the final say - The ... - The Globe and Mail - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Politics biggest determinant of economic future, says Page - Tbnewswatch.com - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Our Turn: Pass SB 129, save 900 New Hampshire jobs - Concord Monitor - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- We'll Always Have Paris: Trump's Impact On The Climate Agreement - HuffPost - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- A strategy that will make Canadian innovation flourish - The Globe and Mail - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Ocean Conference Side Events Highlight Cooperation on SDG 14 ... - IISD Reporting Services - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- We must tap 'blue economy' for progress - Daily Nation - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Minnesota Power Proposes Next Step in EnergyForward Plan - POWER magazine - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]