CleveMed Blogs

Oil spills have a catastrophic effect on marine wildlife, and a controversial effect on human health. Recently, it has been determined that leaking oil is about 40% methane gas, compared to 5% found in typical oil deposits. Such high levels of methane can suffocate marine life and create “dead zones” where oxygen is so depleted nothing in those areas can survive. While humans do not face nearly the same exposure risk as animals, the most common oil exposure mechanism is inhalation of oil-related fumes. In addition, fumes of chemical dispersants often used to contain the spill, as well as the risk of inhaling the methane gas, may be hazardous. Exposure to high levels of methane gas depletes oxygen levels, causing difficulty breathing and leading to suffocation if left untreated. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headache, and heart palpitations are also symptoms of methane gas poisoning. In addition to inhalation exposure, people also face the potential of ingesting contaminated food products, as well as physical contact if walking or swimming along a contaminated beach. The effect of oil exposure in humans is not entirely known, but recently the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have noticed some complaints of throat irritation, eye irritation, nausea, headache, and cough in Gulf area residents, all of which could be attributed to a variety of causes. So far, about 60 exposure-related complaints have been filed with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals by individuals who are working to clean up the spill.

While containment and oil clean up is critical, there is also a need for health clean up, where biomedical engineering can play an important role. Bioinstrumentation can be critical in addressing health concerns for animals and humans. Since air exposure is the most common way humans may be affected, monitoring blood oxygen levels, lung capacity, and breathing patterns can determine respiratory effects. Furthermore, monitoring cardiac characteristics could demonstrate methane poisoning based on presence of a heart beating rapidly, abnormally, and any arrhythmias. Additionally, examining electrical characteristics of the heart could determine if any symptoms, such as shortness of breath, are a result of cardiac conduction problems. Bioinstrumentation allows researchers and medical personnel to collect physiological data to determine when these types of symptoms are occurring and differentiate underlying causes as well as the potential need for immediate medical treatment. The proper bioinstrumentation tools such as wireless physiological monitors are crucial in situations such as an oil spill because they can rapidly provide health information necessary for treating exposure related illnesses.

Typically, bioinstrumentation is large and bulky, often mounted on carts, and tethered to a wall power supply. These systems are extremely limited because of their inability for use in remote or rugged locations. Remote and compact bioinstrumentation can have significant benefits in situations such as the Gulf oil spill. CleveMed’s BioRadio could be used to research physiological effects on individuals who are working with oil spill clean up without hindering the effort. It could also be used to explore whether or not individuals working directly with the oil (for instance, scooping tar balls out of the water) have different physiological characteristics than those working indirectly with the oil, such as washing off animals, and provide insight as to whether or not certain cleaning locations are more dangerous than others. Such data could be used to try to develop a theoretical “map” of the breadth of spill-related fumes and their effect on a variety of populations. The BioRadio is a wireless, 12-channel, lightweight, programmable physiological monitor for viewing and recording any combination of physiological signals, such as ECG, EEG, EOG and EMG, respiration, spirometry, oximetry and more. The BioRadio has a transmission range of approximately 100 feet and battery life up to 12 hours continuous.

This post is an adaptation from “Can Biomedical Engineering Clean Gulf Oil Spill Effects?” as seen in BioRadio Research & Education Quarterly, Summer 2010.

CleveMed specializes in the manufacture of wireless, subject-worn physiological monitoring equipment. Within the Division of Research and Education systems, a number of wireless data acquisition devices are offered for a variety of applications.

BioCapture is a research system that uses the BioRadio, a wireless data acquisition device for physiological monitoring. The BioRadio can measure any combination of signals such as ECG, EMG, EEG, EOG, respiration, SpO2 and more. Data is telemetered to a receiver connected to a nearby PC. The information is displayed through the software and data can be exported for analysis in third party applications, such as LabView, Matlab or Excel. The BioCapture system is suitable for a number biomedical research applications.

CleveLabs is a laboratory course system that uses the same data acquisition device as BioCapture, the BioRadio. The software is different, in that it is tailored toward students as a laboratory teaching system focusing on engineering, physiology and clinical applications. Biomedical engineering, physiology, electrical & computer engineering and other departments can benefit from this technology. The system is very flexible and can be used in biomedical engineering labs and classrooms, biomedical research applications, physiology labs and research, and more.

KinetiSense is a wireless data acquisition system that measures three dimensional motion using accelerometers and gyroscopes. Linear acceleration and angular velocity are measured from different portions of the body and data is transmitted to a received connected to a nearby PC. The software displays and stores the data and some analysis features are included. An export utility is also included for easy export for custom analysis applications using programs such as LabView, Matlab or Excel.

CleveMed is pleased to announce a new partnership with Emona Instruments as the Australian and New Zealand distributor of the CleveLabs laboratory course system.

Emona Instruments was established in 1979 as an importer and distributor of electronic test equipment. Their current product catalog includes electronic and electrical test and measuring instruments and engineering teaching equipment which makes them the ideal distributor for our biomedical engineering teaching equipment. Emona Instruments is established as one of Australia’s leading instrumentation and teaching equipment suppliers to industry, education, defense and government customers.

With the growth of biomedical engineering and biomedical engineering subjects in electrical and mechanical engineering, there is a real need for biomedical teaching and research equipment that meets the specific needs of engineering teaching departments.

CleveLabs is a laboratory course system that uses wireless state of the art physiological monitoring equipment with interactive software to teach engineering, physiology and clinical applications. Expanding the market to Australia and New Zealand opens up many new avenues for CleveMed and Emona Instruments.

For more information on CleveMed, please visit www.CleveMed.com. For more information on Emona Instruments, please visit www.emona.com.au