By Bolanle Busirat Azeez (Pictured above in the Rice360 lab)
OxyTech: a novel low-cost oxygen analyzer
My name is Busirat Azeez. I joined Rice360 as a Global Health Fellow from my hometown, Ibadan, Nigeria. During my fellowship, I am leading the technology development of OxyTech, a low-cost oxygen analyzer.
Maintaining sources of therapeutic oxygen, which is the oxygen used to help patients breath in a hospital setting, could be improved in resource-limited settings by the availability of an affordable oxygen analyzer. Oxygen analyzers are important diagnostic tools for biomedical engineers and technicians to verify that the available therapeutic oxygen is optimal.
Project Milestones: Working Prototype
So far, I have a working prototype of OxyTech. It is currently undergoing bench top testing across multiple medical grade oxygen sources. The bench top testing shows promise as an affordable alternative oxygen analyzer. I am further looking to optimize the form factor, assess its performance under different temperature exposures, and test its usability among clinicians and biomedical technicians in the resource-limited settings.
Design Community: Collaboration for better design
In a bid to learn more about the necessary features of an oxygen analyzer, I attended a three-day training course at Caire headquarters in Ball Ground, Georgia, an oxygen concentrator manufacturing facility, to further my expertise in the repair and maintenance needs of oxygen concentrators. This training gave me a deep insight into the important parameters to look out for and why they are crucial to extending the lifespan of concentrators in resource-limited settings.
I also have had the opportunity to make a poster presentation on OxyTech at the Houston Global Health Collaborative conference in April 2024. And to share my project more widely, I made a similar presentation at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) conference in Baltimore, Maryland in October 2024. I will be co-presenting on Celsi Warmer at the upcoming Innovation for Day One Conference here in Houston this September 2024.
Celsi Warmer: clinical study
My second project as a Rice360 Fellow has been to support clinical enrollment for Rice360’s Celsi Warmer Clinical Study at Lagos University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria for the first three months of my fellowship (July - September 2023). I continue to remotely assist the research team in Nigeria while I am working in Rice360’s Houston office at Rice University.
Celsi Warmer is a low-cost warming mattress that provides thermal support for newborns that are hypothermic. I am particularly passionate about this study because it gave me a practical insight on the relevance of diversity and inclusion during the product development period, due to the fact that the clinical study trial was carried out in a hospital setting with limited resources – working in that setting helped me understand the challenges of the patients and clinicians who are the target users for Celsi Warmer.
During the study, we navigated through various challenges, including a heatwave and intermittent power outages in Nigeria that affected enrollment chances. However, the study was successfully executed, concluding with 43 enrollments.
In April 2024, I returned to Lagos, Nigeria to carry out the end-of-study procedures at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), ensuring all study data were securely stored according to the study protocol.
The preliminary analysis of data collected shows promise in delivering warmth according to newborns temperature and within safety parameters. This device maybe a feasible alternative solution when incubators are not available in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) region. Further analysis of the study is under way.
Rice360 Fellowship: How has your Rice360 Global Health Fellowship benefitted you?
Coming from Nigeria, Rice360 fellowship program has given me a leg up in my STEM education journey. It has been nothing short of an amazing hands-on learning experience for me. It has opened me up to various opportunities to network with expertise in my line of career and provided me with premium access to learning resources on a daily basis. As a biomedical engineer, field experience is important and Rice360 fellowship has given me the opportunity to experience the clinical settings and close relationship with the clinicians while working on solving real life healthcare challenges.
I have had an opportunity during the fellowship to grow my technical skills. I have learned CAD (computer-aided design), circuit design, soldering, rapid prototyping, and operation of various medical devices. I am also developing my research skills like needs definition, critical thinking, problem solving, time management, data collection and analysis. Asides working on projects, I have had the chance to engage in other educational activities like seminars and workshops.
Rice360 fellowship program has reinforced my passion for biomedical engineering and global health. The experiences I have gained up until now have personally enhanced my confidence towards tackling challenges in both my career and personal life. It has given my career a turnaround I could only dream of prior to the program. Rice360 gave me a welcoming home in the US with lifelong friends and family who not only made my transition from Nigeria to the US seamless but are also making my stay fulfilling.