A team of biomedical engineering students are competing for the 2019 BMES Student Design Competition, sponsored by Medtronic. This year’s topic is Digital Imaging.

BME team members include Altaful Amin, Justina Chan, Alexander Dluzneski, Youssef Elbanna, Marye Lee, Brian Nazareth, Henry Nguyen and Giancarlo Tejeda. The team is being mentored by BME affiliate faculty, Dr. Samsun Lampotang, professor of anesthesiology in the college of medicine.

A positive diagnosis of prostate cancer is currently obtained only via pathology examination of biopsied samples whereby samples are observed to contain cancerous cells. Early detection of prostate cancer before it has escaped the capsule and is still localized offers more options for treatment or cure. A failure mode of the prostate biopsy is a false negative, that is, prostate cancer is present in one or more regions of the prostate but the biopsy undesirably collects samples from outside the cancerous regions. False negative biopsy reports unnecessarily delay initiation of treatment which, in turn, may give time for localized prostate cancer to metastasize and spread to other organs and organ systems, reducing options, complicating treatment and worsening outcomes.

This project was the result of a desire to improve the quality of care that patients receive. The solution was to create a mixed reality prostate biopsy simulator that would assist physicians in their ability to perform this complex procedure. While there are some simulators already on the market for this procedure, those simulations are typically entirely virtual and do not integrate a physical model to further immerse the user and provide a more accurate experience. The targeted change in outcome is the reduction of false negative prostate biopsies in clinicians trained with this simulator.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Samsun Lampotang
Senior Design instructor: Dr. Lakiesha Williams
Competition Mentor: Dr. Sarah Rowlinson