Medical Student Collaborates with Biomedical Engineers to Create a Device That Helps Cancer Patients

My project is investigating a newly developed medical device called the Lymphavibe and seeing how safe and how effective it is at treating upper extremity lymphedema. Lymphedema is a chronic medical condition that occurs when there's some sort of a disturbance to the lymphatic system, usually that happens after cancer or after cancer treatment. And so clinically, it presents as chronic swelling that needs to be treated in some way shape or form. Usually, that's in the shape of seeing a lymphedema therapist once a week, but this medical device can be used in the home setting to kind of decrease symptoms between these appointments. On this team, with Jenia being a medical student and teaming up with a group of engineers, we've been able to take this project to new heights really. I think her medical knowledge, combined with her ability to develop clinical trials, understand patient safety, understand the type of data that we need to get out to prove that this device will be effective was instrumental in that process. Combined with the engineering skill set that the students brought to the table about building prototypes and getting the system ready for that type of trial. I can’t take any credit for developing the device itself; that was all the engineering team. But, my role was to actually get it put on people. So, a lot of my role was to make sure that we were in compliance, to, A, get this device put on healthy people, to show that it was safe, and then also using that data from the healthy subject study, to be able to convince the governing bodies that be, that it was okay to put on people with upper extremity lymphedema. We could see right from the start the impact that it was going to have on patients. Patients aren't able to pick up their grandchildren or carry in their groceries, which, you know, may feel like a really huge departure from their norm. And so, being able to offer this medical device as potential option in the future, is really great, because I think it can help people get that quality of life back and get back what they were before they had cancer. One of the main reasons I decided to pursue medicine, and my specialty in general, was that I would be able to make a large impact on someone's quality of life.