Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment Commons^™

Optimizing A Clostridium Difficile Screen For Intensive Care Unit Admissions, Mary Katherine V. Natour, Jennifer Smith

Graduate Publications and Other Selected Works - Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Background: Clostridium difficile infection is one of the most common healthcare-associated infections. Careful screening upon hospital admission enables clinicians to mitigate the spread and sequelae of this illness through early intervention and isolation but this screening must be accurate and highly sensitive to maximize benefit.

Local problem: The site for this project, an ICU in Tennessee, currently employs a highly sensitive but nonspecific tool to detect CDI. This has resulted in low accuracy, low staff compliance, low patient morale, and unnecessarily high personal protective equipment (PPE) costs.

Methods: Levin’s evidence-based practice improvement model was chosen to guide this project from …

Implementation Of Standardized Patient Education To Improve Adherence With Colonoscopy For Colorectal Cancer Screening, Melissa Leal Hearn, Melissa M. Hessock, Tara L. Hahn

Graduate Publications and Other Selected Works - Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer deaths among men and women in the U.S. CRC is preventable and manageable when detected early. Approximately 30% of average-risk Americans are overdue for colonoscopy screening. Colonoscopy screenings can reduce death by 67%. Current evidence suggests CRC screening education improves screening uptake among men and women at average-risk age.

LOCAL PROBLEM: The setting of this practice improvement project was a private colorectal surgery practice in South Texas, serving primarily Hispanic/Latino and Caucasian patients. Cancellation rates before colonoscopy were 16.8%, and there was no standardized education for CRC …

The Need For A Sepsis Screening Tool In An Outpatient Facility, Michael C. Ciccarone

Graduate Publications and Other Selected Works - Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Sepsis is an exaggerated inflammatory response generated by the immune system secondary to the presence of septicemia, or pathogens within the bloodstream. An average of 270,000 individuals die from sepsis each year, while a total of 1.7 million cases occur annually. Research has shown that the early identification of sepsis prior to hospital admission is associated with decreased lengths of stay, hospital-associated costs, and overall mortality. To demonstrate this research, 26 healthcare staff members in an outpatient clinic were provided with a pre-survey, qSOFA sepsis screening tool, and a post survey to determine if these materials
increased participant confidence when …

Use Of A Smartphone Ecg Monitor To Identify Electrocardiogram Abnormalities Due To Hyperkalemia From Urinary Obstruction In A Jacob’S Sheep, Joseph Smith

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Large Animal Clinical Sciences

Smartphone-based ECGS present a diagnostic opportunity for large animal practice. A two year old Jacob’s sheep presented with severe hyperkalemia secondary to a urinary obstruction. Collection of an electrocardiogram from a smart-phone based device demonstrated altered waveforms typical of severe hyperkalemia. The patient was successfully managed with medical and surgical therapies. This case presents that the method of collecting a smartphone-based ECG as determined for other large animal species, may be applicable to sheep. Additionally, this report demonstrates that the smartphone-based device may be sensitive enough to detect the absence of a P wave as commonly encountered with cases of …

Design And Development Of A Quartz Crystal Microbalance Immunosensor For Exosomes, Wesley Cox

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Policy Of Current Hospital Translation Services And Recommendations For Future Adjustments For Spanish-Speaking Patients, Isidora Rose Beach

Baker Scholar Projects

It is a seldom-discussed fact that English-speakers in America enjoy a quality of health care that is not necessarily afforded to non-native speakers receiving care at the same facilities. Policy regarding what is required of health institutions in terms of translation services is exceedingly vague, and implementation of this policy is inconsistent. This lack of guidance makes it possible for many patients needing interpreters to fall through the cracks. This project will examine current policy guiding interpretive services in the U.S., and will recommend more specific guidelines that would improve quality of care for limited English proficiency individuals. This project …

Policy Of Current Hospital Translation Services And Recommendations For Future Adjustments For Spanish-Speaking Patients, Isidora Rose Beach

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Fiber Optic Bandage, Logan Mcneil, Cameron Pilkey, Brittani Erwin, Adam Wojnar

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences

The purpose of this document is to show the report for the Fiber optic device formulated through the biomedical engineering department with a senior design group. A growing issue in medical technology is open wound care. Particularly prevalent in diabetics, open wound care is expensive and time consuming. Certain wavelengths of light have not only shown to have germicidal properties, but also allow cell growth and regeneration. The following design was founded around these ideas, and an initial design was developed. The design centered around using fiber optics as a means of replacing a wet bandage in a normal wound …

Fiber Optic Bandage, Logan Mcneil

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

A Computational, Topological Approach To Icu Mortality Rate Prediction With Data Relationship Realization, Adam Michael Aaron

Masters Theses

The objective of this work is to predict the mortality of intensive care unit patients based on their physiological data and understand the relationships between physiological data. Such a model may be used to prioritize care when resources are limited or identify patients that will need significant care in the immediate future. This effort will take a novel approach applying computational topological analysis to classify patients. The algorithm predicting the patient outcomes is trained using an evolutionary algorithm. The dataset used is from the 2012 PhysioNet Computing in Cardiology Challenge. A set containing 4000 records with outcomes was used to …

Automated Home Apnea System, Collin G. Howser, Trevor Grieco

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Immunologic Risk Prediction Model For Kidney Graft Function, Christina Diane Bishop

Doctoral Dissertations

Clinicians lack appropriate non-invasive methods to be able to predict, diagnose, and reduce the risk of rejection in the years following kidney transplantation. Protocol biopsies and monitoring of serum creatinine levels are the most common methods of monitoring graft function after transplant; however, they have several negative aspects. Use of traditional factors regarding donors and recipients such as Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) DNA typing, pre-transplant anti-HLA antibody levels, and basic demographics (age, ethnicity/race, gender), has proved inadequate for post-transplant graft monitoring past the first few years. We propose that by utilizing immunologic factors available to clinicians across the United States, …

Why Is There Still So Much Confusion About Vo2 Plateau? A Re-Examination Of The Work Of A.V. Hill, Richard Vincent Castle

Masters Theses

Maximal oxygen uptake (VO_2max) is regarded as the gold standard for assessing aerobic fitness. In 1923, Hill et al. proposed that VO_2max represents the maximal ability of the body to take in and consume O₂ during strenuous exercise. Recently, however, controversy has arisen over the issue of whether a leveling off, or "plateau" in VO₂ is necessary to verify attainment of VO_2max. Purpose: To compare two different VO_2max protocols and determine if both protocols show direct evidence of an upper limit on VO₂. Methods: Nine runners (18-35 years old) completed …

Development Of An Autonomous Mammalian Lux Reporter System, Daniel Michael Close

Doctoral Dissertations

Since its characterization, the definitive shortcoming of the bacterial luciferase (lux) bioluminescent reporter system has been its inability to express at a functional level in the eukaryotic cellular background. While recent developments have allowed for lux function in the lower eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae, they have not provided for autonomous function in higher eukaryotes capable of serving as human biomedical proxies. Here it is reported for the first time that, through a process of poly-bicistronic expression of human codon-optimized lux genes, it is possible to autonomously produce a bioluminescent signal directly from mammalian cells. The low background of …