Grande Prairie NAIT grad & team recognized for medical equipment innovation

A team of NAIT graduates which includes a Grande Prairie resident is receiving praise for their capstone project for their biomedical engineering technology program – a project which aims to provide automated assistance to paramedics providing resuscitation in the field.

St. Joseph Catholic High School (’17) grad Edgard Jose and his fellow NAIT graduates, Daniel Tkaczyk and Zyryl Mariano, have been named a finalist for Capstone Project of the Year by The Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET) for their invention, the Bag Me Up Scottie 5000, or BMUS 5000, an automated bag valve mask designed to facilitate better breath delivery during CPR or intubation.

Jose says it was originally Mariano, who is a former Licensed Practical Nurse, who came up with the idea to create such an instrument for their capstone project. From there, they reached out to paramedics and many others in the medical field about what they thought of having such a tool to utilize in the field.

“(They) helped us understand the physical challenges of the bagging procedure, and how we might be able to optimize it to deliver improved patient outcomes,” said Jose.

Bag valve masks, which are currently operated manually by paramedics, are used to provide positive pressure ventilation to patients and promote oxygenated blood flow to the brain and heart, alongside providing chest compressions.

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Some of the current challenges that were identified were medical professionals’ fatigue and inadequate breath delivery. Jose says by automating the bagging procedure, the BMUS 5000 can help reduce fatigue of medical professionals performing resuscitation while optimizing their patient focus, enabling them to produce more consistent breath delivery.

ASET CEO Barry Cavanaugh said he is blown away by the ingenuity shown by Jose and his teammates. He says from his own research, it appears this type of product is a brand-new concept.

“As far as I am aware, there has not been such a thing developed anywhere,” said Cavanaugh. “Rice University in Texas, as we understand it, is working on a prototype, and this team.

“So, it’s quite something that they have been as innovative as they have.”

The BMUS 5000 also goes beyond just automating the bagging unit, as it addresses resuscitation through other systems, including a touchscreen application which can activate either CPR or intubation mode; an end-tidal CO2 monitor, and a web application to save and record all necessary data for later use.

Cavanaugh claims engineering technologists, by nature, are quite modest. That seems to certainly be the case for Jose, who says he and his team only intended to build their prototype to meet their graduation requirements for their program.

“It didn’t really hit until we got nominated for the capstone award,” admits Jose. “Initially, to us, we were just doing it as a project for school. Once we presented it, our instructors really liked it, so they then presented it to NAIT, who then nominated us through ASET for the award.”

If it were up to Cavanaugh, Jose and his team would continue to work on the invention to have it commercialized.

“They deserve the credit for their creativity. But secondly, something like this needs to be commercialized because that is how these important machines get into the hands of hospitals,” said Cavanaugh.

“Paramedics and physicians and nurses have confirmed for us that it’s needed. It’s of real value, because it not only provides for a quality of airflow to the patient… but it also makes it possible for the paramedic to focus on the chest compressions, rather than squeezing the bag as well.”

Jose, who after graduating this past summer took a job as a biomedical engineering technologist at a hospital in Regina, says his new career comes first at the moment.

“But, given the chance to work on it, we would be open to the possibility of pursuing it further,” said Jose.

ASET names eight finalists annually (seven for this year) for their Capstone of the Year Award from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), Red Deer College and Lethbridge College for students who demonstrate their innovation in the final year of their applied science or engineering technology program.

“I have to stress, as far as we’re concerned, all of these finalists are winners. Some of the stuff we’ve seen is just incredible,” said Cavanaugh.

The award winner will be named in May.