Alisa Liu
Project Alivio is a student-run team comprised of members from all different majors, working with a co-design team (Student Association of International Medical Research) to reduce the incidence of pressure ulcers at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Guatemala City. Pressure ulcers, or bed sores, are wounds that form due to prolonged pressure on a part of the body. In order to alleviate this pressure and prevent ulcer formation, nurses in hospitals are responsible for turning patients every few hours. However, at San Juan de Dios, the understaffing of nurses and added physical demand of turning a patient contributes to infrequent turning. This results in a high incidence of these sores at this particular hospital. After assessing this need, our team has prototyped a patient-turning device that will lower nurse effort and allow for patients to be turned more efficiently. Currently in the stage of designing a high-fidelity prototype, our goal is to travel to Guatemala this summer to gather feedback and ensure that our device is suitable for our community partner. We would like to be able to implement this design into the hospital setting and begin looking more into manufacturing. Overall, we hope to create a low-cost, sustainable solution that will reduce pressure ulcer formation for patients at the San Juan de Dios Hospital.
Library Mentor: Leena