Design, Implementation and Assessment of HEALIT (Hemostasis by Expanding Automatic Life-saving Innovative Technique)
By Keanu Chan
Junior Category (Grades 7-8)
Innovation | Biology
BCVSF Note:
This project had been selected to advance to the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2020 (cancelled due to COVID-19), from the East Kootenay Regional Science Fair which took place before the COVID-19 crisis hit British Columbia.
The required ethics forms have been submitted for this project.
I developed a novel device under the acronym HEALIT which stands for Hemostasis by Expanding Automatic Life-saving Innovative Technique. I have been enhancing the HEALIT design over the past 3 years.
My original innovation works by having a balloon filled with chemicals that would expand and add pressure to the wound and hopefully stop the bleeding. After bench testing, HEALIT was shown to significantly decrease the amount and rate of bleeding in a wound simulator. In my second iteration, I enveloped the balloon in a clotting agent called Surgicel to enhance coagulation. In my third iteration, an antibiotic powder called Tobramycin was enshrouded in the Surgicel and released during HEALIT expansion to reduce the incidence of infection. The final prototype is a urethane medical balloon shaped as a tapered cylinder. The balloon has a centre twist to separate the two solutions. Enveloping the ballon was Surgicel and enshrouded in the Surgicel is a silver nanoparticle antibiotic.
The prototype would provide a pressure to occlude traumatic bleeding blood vessels. It would simultaneously coagulate the wound and suppress infection. Local paramedics agree HEALIT is easy to use, inexpensive and more practical compared to other alternatives. My device is crucial as each year about 2,000,000 deaths worldwide occur from hemorrhaging or blood loss.
