The idea is to develop a test for acute pancreatitis that can perform much faster than conventional tests while costing just a dollar to manufacture. The sensor will consist of an LED light, milk protein, aluminum foil, gelatin, and a few other low cost materials. The sensor won't require any external energy source, and will able to detect acute pancreatitis within an hour with just drop of blood and, a bit later, a drop of lye. If the blood has high levels of trypsin (indicative...

A wireless heart pump will eliminate the need for a cord, cutting down on the risk of infection and reducing the patient's discomfort. The wireless prototype is reliable to a distance of up to a meter, and works by transferring power through a magnetic field rather than an electrical field. This method avoids overheating and doesn't need to stay specifically aligned with the power transmitter like previous wireless heart models. The new method could allow for more innovations...

The idea is to create a small easy to use sensor that can be dipped into a drink to determine if it has been spiked with the date rape drugs GHB and ketamine. The sensor will be able to detect the colorless and odorless drug by the way it will change the optical properties of the drink. A 'signal change' caused by how light will move through the drugged drink will trigger an alarm, which could be a beeping noise or flashing light for use in loud, dark environments.

The idea is to create a dental emergency kit for soldiers in the field, providing a quick fix until the soldier can get to professional help. The kit will be the size of a CD and weigh about an ounce and a half. It will include the supplies needed to repair a broken tooth, lost filling, or ease irritation caused by orthodontic wire. The instructions will be easy to follow, and will include step by step illustrations. I believe that immediate steps can help save an injured...

The wristwatch sized device will be able to help prevent deep vein thrombosis by stimulating the muscles and increasing blood flow in the femoral vein. The device will be self-adhesive and will not require wires or leads. It will be meant to be wrapped around a lower knee where it will use electrical signals to stimulate the peroneal nerve, increasing blood flow and helping to discourage clots.

A new contact lens will be able to deliver anesthetic over an extended time in uniform doses, providing better comfort for post-eye surgery patients. The lenses will be created specifically with laser eye surgery patients in mind. The dosing them with vitamin E will extend the time of release of 3 common anesthetics from 2 hours to a whole day. The vitamin E will also function as a barrier, keeping the medication on the eye.

The clamp is a quick and effective way to slow the bleeding of traumatic wounds in the field. The plastic clamp includes long curved needles along its 'jaws'. The curved needles allow the wound to be drawn up into the device, where it is held with an even pressure that allows the blood underneath to form a clot and slow bleeding until further medical help is available.

The new device will be able to determine the amount of vegetables in a person's diet in about a minute, simply by shining a laser on the person's hand. The veggie-monitor will use Raman spectroscopy (RRS) to measure the increased level of carotenoids in the skin. Carontenoids, which are the biomakers for fruit and vegetable intake, tend to cause a slight yellow skin discoloration that is particularly noticeable in the palms. A blue argon laser tuned to interact with the carotenoids...

Ingestible sensors could make it much easier for patients who take large amounts of medicines to keep track of their doses. The patient swallows the sensor chip which is embedded in a pill. The chip travels to the stomach, where it is activated by the stomach fluids and transmits an ID signal with a time stamp. A patch worn by the patient picks up the ID and time stamp information, as well as data collected by the patch such as activity and heart rate, and sends the information...

A smartphone app able to analyze the air volume of a person's lungs from audio recordings could make it easier for people to track their lung health. The application is able to analyze lip reverberation in order to monitor pulmonary diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and cystic fibrosis. By creating a model of a person's trachea and vocal tract, it is possible to mimic the tubes of a spirometer while using the phone to analyze sound wave frequencies as they...