At National Competitive Presentation on Medical Device Ideas

 

For Device to Test for Blood Coagulation before Transfusion

 

 

 

A group of three GIST graduate students won the Health and Welfare Minister’s Prize in the 2014 National Competitive Presentation on Medical Device Ideas held in Wonju on September 16. The ministerial award was the highest prize in the competition hosted by Yonsei University, and their winning idea was a testing device to prevent blood transfusion accidents.

 

The group consisted of Seo, Seung-wan (School of Mechatronics), Kim, Hyun-woo (Department of Medical System Engineering; M.D., Board Certified Urologist), and Park, Chang-joo (Department of Medical System Engineering), all Ph.D. students whose academic advisor is Professor Jong Hyun Lee.

 

Blood transfusion accidents usually happen as a result of human negligence in handling the blood and as such are very hard to eradicate. The device presented by the GIST students allows a quick, on-site testing of potential coagulation between the patient’s blood and the blood to be transfused just before the surgical operation, which helps greatly reduce the possibility of unfortunate accidents.

 

“The students tried hard to come up with a technological solution to the problem of blood transfusion accidents,” said Professor Lee. “Their novel idea was arrived at by convergent collaboration among students with differing backgrounds in science, engineering, and medicine. We are planning to apply for patent rights for the techniques and products related to the idea,” he added.