Under the mentorship of WISER Director of Operations, Tom Dongilli, several students from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering Bioengineering class created DAPHNE: a Dynamic and Accessible Postpartum Hemorrhage Novice Educator. ?After speaking with simulation centers at Pitt and three other institutions, we found that existing labor and delivery simulators are insufficient to fully train nurses to properly manage postpartum hemorrhage.? Bioengineering Senior Jake Meadows stated.
Jake continued, ?We aim to help labor and delivery nurses learn how to recognize and initially manage a postpartum hemorrhage. Our device simulates blood loss at physiologically accurate and controllable rates and also has a dynamic uterus that transitions from soft and large to firm and small. With this training, we hope to better prepare labor and delivery nurses to manage postpartum hemorrhage because we believe these preventable deaths need to be prevented.?
The team recently participated in the Fall 2019 Swanson School of Engineering Design Expo. During the Expo the team won first place in the Bioengineering category for their design of DAPHNE. The team is excited to finalize their first version of DAPHNE this month and will be looking to verify the performance specification of their design. They hope to validate whether their simulation-training experience helps novice nurses learn critical skills.
Protype of DAPHNE.
Dr. Sarah Sakamoto, Department of OBGYN at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital provides input to the group.
1st Place Bioengineering Team with DAPHNE.