Hospital-Induced Delirium is a serious condition that is associated with a threefold increase in mortality risk. Despite the impact, many healthcare professionals lack training, time, and resources to check for early signs.
To address this, our school partnered with the Waterloo Hospital, to develop prototypes and devices to prevent or detect delirium.
Disclaimer: This was a group project. This README briefly describes the full project, but only highlights my individual contributions where applicable.
In this project, we created a device that detected delirium by checking for sleeping quality. It was found that sleep quality is one of the many causes of hospital-induced delirium.
Below is an overview of the device created:
• An accelerometer is connected to an ESP32-C3 microcontroller to send movement data to a website
• Powered by a 3.7 Li-Po battery with a switch
• Components foam taped to wrist strap
• Movement data transmitted to a web dashboard
• Website provides:
• Movement tracking charts
• Alerts for abnormal or critical movement patterns
• ESP32-C3 microcontroller to send data via Wifi/Bluetooth and small size over Arduino Uno
• Battery for portability
• Accelerometer over heart rate due to reliability and accuracy in data
Medical Research
I began with reviewing medical literature to understand:
• Causes and symptoms of delirium
• Risk factors and statistics
• Current prevention/ detection methods
Existing Solutions
I analyzed previous designs and identified:
• Limitations of real-hospital integration
• Reasons for limited devices used in hospitals
Design Decisions
Based on previous research, I proposed a wearable sleep-monitor delirium device which the group selected due to:
• Sleep quality is one of the main factors for delirium
• Feasible in limited time and goals
Technical Skills
Before starting this project, I gained hands-on experience in:
• Arduino IDE and microcontrollers
• Sensors (light, heartbeat, buttons, etc.)
• Oscilloscope usage
• Accelerometers
These exercise taught me the basics of integrating hardware and collecting data.
Effective AI Usage
AI played a key role in research and development of the project. I used and learned prompt engineering to get the desired results.
Key Takeaways:
• Be specific (request data, statistics,etc.)
• Ask for credible sources (government, studies, academic)
• Break complex questions into smaller prompts
• Keep prompts clear and concise
This increased my speed and quality of my research.
Presentation and Innovative Mindset
We learned the importance of clearly communicating when creating prototypes
Key Takeaways:
• An idea must be supported with data and evidence of its importance
• Showcasing it clearly allows stakeholders to understand it
• The product must solve a real-world problem for it to be considered useful
• stronger connection of hardware to band
• easy attachment/detachment for charging
• Protective casing for durability
• Real-world testing for hardware validation
• Additional Sensors for redundancy
• Software Integration into hospital systems
This project reflects essential skills for hardware engineering:
Prototyping Skills
• iteration of design is essential
• failures refine the devices
• multiple versions before final product
Presentation and Persuasive Skills
• essential for investments
• explain importance of the device
• progress and results must be communicated effectively
Research Skill
• essential for development of hardware
• without research, devices risk solving the wrong problem or failing in real-world situations
• prevents wasted efforts and helps with informed design decisions
This project combined research, hardware prototyping, and communication to address a real-world problem. This showcases the importance of designing for practicality to solve problems and communicating the solution effectively.