WEEK 13

12/4-12/11

We started off the week with a meeting with Dr. Felder. We discussed the pros and cons of the three potential biomaterials, and decided that PDS and PCL are both potential good options. He has worked with Poly-Med before to determine the best biomaterial for certain medical devices, so we plan to contact them once we are in the prototyping phase. We also discussed whether a resorbable suture material or a non-resorbable suture material would be best. He gave us input on the dimensions of our CAD design as well. We also talked about what FDA classification our device would fall under and what the approval process might look like. 

Individually, we each completed our portions of the final report and finished putting it together into a cohesive paper. As a team, we met with Sling Health for design review 2, during which we got the helpful feedback to increase our credibility by making it clear that we have a surgeon on our team. Further, it was suggested that we reach out to the WashU General Surgery Residency director to see if any residents would be interested in working with us and giving us feedback, so we can figure out where the "pain points" of using our product are. 

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In terms of our senior design class this semester, all that is left is creating our device pitch, which we will be working on next week. However, we are excited about this project and plan to keep working on it next semester. Dr. Felder is on board with this plan as well. We will be taking BME402, the 1-credit class next semester, and will also continue working with Sling Health. Hopefully, by the end of next semester we can have a working prototype. 

We are looking forward to enjoying winter break, and maybe taking a little time away from the project will help facilitate new ideas!