Free Healthcare Education Apps

Information About the HESS Accessories

Android Technology Accessories:
Most of what constitutes the HESS are the Android Apps - along with the Android tablets that run the HESS Apps. And there are many technology gadgets and adapters that can be used with Android tablets - such as screen casters, HDMI Adapters, USB Adapters, etc. These kinds of items are available for purchase from numerous sources and can enhance how the HESS is used in an educational exercise. For example, the HESS Apps can be displayed on a large monitor or projector. Or the Android tablet can join a virtual meeting and share the HESS App virtually. Or, the HESS App can be recorded while running and saved as a video for later on-demand usage. The HESS Apps are just like any other Android app, so anything that can be done with Android apps can be done with the HESS Apps.

Fake Medical Device Accessories:
In some cases, the HESS is best paired with a fake medical device cable in an educational exercise. For example, the HESS Pulse Oximeter App can be used with a standard finger clip cable so that the learner can place the finger clip on the finger of a manikin or actor in a simulation. While these fake cables do not actually provide any real functionality, they are often valuable "props" in an exercise. Other examples include blood pressure cuffs, thermometer probes, ekg leads, fetal monitor transducers, etc. These fake cables can be taped to the Android tablet (or to a short USB adapter plugged into the Android tablet) to simulate a real medical device. Most hospital and nursing school educators have access to a variety of these types of cables to include in the learning exercises.

The HESS Accessories:
As the HESS Project progressed, the need for a few specialized accessories arose. These specialized accessories were not commonly available for purchase and/or needed to provide actual functionality that did not exist. Therefore, these specialized HESS Accessories needed to be engineered and built specifically for the HESS. edgeThingZ was fortunate to have been an inaugural business partner when Otterbein University founded a new engineering program and created a maker space on campus called "The Point". The needs for these specialized HESS Accessories were presented to Otterbein engineering student teams as class projects. Part of the criteria presented to the teams was to engineer a solution that was extremely cost effective - usually limited to $25 or less. The results were then implemented in the Otterbein Nursing Program to validate the usability and effectiveness.

There are four specialized HESS Accessories that were only available as part of the HESS:

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HESS Pole Mount Accessory:
Educators desired a way to mount the Android tablet running a HESS App on an IV pole bedside during a learning exercise. While many popular phones had commercially available cases that could serve in such a situation, most Android tablets did not have cases available. The challenge was to create a way to mount ANY Android tablet - regardless of the manufacturer and the device port locations - securely. The solution involved creating a set of "corners" that would grip the tablet and hold it securely to a back plate. Standard rubber bands were used to secure the corners to the back plate - and then some Velcro and a slightly modified bicycle cell phone clamp was used to enable pole mounting.

It worked! The HESS Pole Mount Accessory became a widely used item - and with a couple of double sided Velcro straps - could also be used to mount the Android tablet safely and temporarily to the front of a real medical monitor device.

Special thanks go to Gavin Koerner for the HESS Pole Mount Accessory. Gavin was an Otterbein engineering student in 2017. He designed and built the prototype pole mount using 3D printing and laser cutting equipment at The Point. He called the design "the Awesome Corners" - get it - "KOERNERS".... They certainly WERE awesome!

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HESS Ink Sensor Smart Cable:
One of the HESS Apps requested by Nurse Educators was the Doppler App. The Doppler App simulated a handheld Doppler medical device used to hear pulses, blood flow or fetal sounds in patients. Real Dopplers have a probe that needs to be placed on a specific spot to hear the sounds - for example on the instep of the foot or on the mother's abdomen. The challenge the Nurse Educators presented was to somehow ONLY produce sounds from the FAKE Doppler App when the probe was in the correct spot.

Simulation tools had taken a variety of approaches to this issue over the years - with solutions including things like stickers, bar codes, metal posts, magnets, etc. - to create SOME way for a fake probe to only operate at a specific location. Most of these approaches involved manikins, so embedding things like metal posts into the skin was feasible. The Nurse Educators working with the HESS wanted a solution that would work with BOTH manikins AND actors.

The breakthrough came when The HESS Team developed the idea of using UV invisible skin safe ink to "mark" the spot on the skin where the probe needed to be placed to hear the sound. These UV inks are the kind used for hand stamps to get back into bars and events - as well as for "black light" parties where people decorate their faces and light up under UV light.

To make this concept work, a sensor needed to be built that would turn on a small UV light LED when the fake probe was pressed against the skin at the location of the UV ink spot - along with a color sensor to read the ink color that was illuminated by the UV LED. Since the ink was invisible under normal light, the learner had to know where to place the probe.

An Arduino was used to control the UV LED and the Color Sensor and to feed the information to the HESS Doppler App. The whole apparatus was then encased in a fake probe that (close enough) resembled a Doppler probe. The result was, frankly, really cool!

It worked! The HESS Ink Sensor Smart Cable became a widely used item. It worked so well that the Doppler functionality was added to the HESS Body Sounds App - along with the ability to sense up to 3 different marker colors - enabling the invisible ink marker concept to produce fake heart, lung and abdominal sounds on any manikin or actor.

Special thanks go to David Vincent, Bella Majoros and Miles Burnam for the HESS Ink Sensor Smart Cable. They were Otterbein engineering students in 2018 and were the student team that took on the Ink Sensor Smart Cable project. Further kudos to David - who designed and built the production ink sensor "scaffold" using laser cutting equipment at The Point - which allowed the circuitry to be cost-effectively encased in the fake probe tube. David also did Arduino, microcontroller and IoT device programming for the HESS Project.

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HESS Glucometer Smart Cable:
A HESS App requested by Nurse Educators was the Glucometer App - to simulate a handheld Glucometer used to measure blood glucose levels. Real Glucometers use a special strip onto which a droplet of the patient's blood is placed. The blood glucose in the droplet causes the strip to generate a small electrical current which is read by the Glucometer to produce the blood glucose measurement.

An Arduino was used to allow a real Glucometer strip to be inserted in a slot - and any liquid with glucose in it could start the electrical current flowing (sugar water, saliva or... real blood... which was never actually used in simulation!). When the current started to flow from the droplet of liquid on the strip, the HESS Glucometer App would display the blood glucose reading.

It worked! Now the learners could emulate the real Glucometer process and receive a wide variety of readings - without sticking anyone for blood.

Special thanks go to Andrew DeBacker who designed and built the production Glucometer Smart Cable "encasement" using laser cutting equipment at The Point - which allowed the circuitry to be cost-effectively encased. Andrew was an Otterbein engineering student in 2018.

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HESS Stethoscope Adapter Cable:
After the Ink Sensor Smart Cable was introduced Nurse Educators began to use the probe and invisible inks with the HESS Body Sounds App. While things worked well simulating heart, lung and abdominal sounds, requests were made for the setup to look more like a real stethoscope.

To accomplish this both the audio output of the Android tablet and the USB interface would need to be combined into something that resembled a real stethoscope. And, the apparatus needed to use the EXISTING Ink Sensor Smart Cable "as is" to avoid needing to provide replacement equipment to the users.

The cables were harnessed together and a special sleeve was added to the Ink Sensor portion of the Smart Cable. Audio earphones that looked like a stethoscope's earpieces completed the assembly.

It worked! New the learners could complete their auscultation learning exercises using something that looked very much like an electronic stethoscope.

Special thanks go to Dassan Jefferson, Dani Kissel and Justin Stoner for the HESS Stethoscope Adapter Cable. They were Otterbein engineering students in 2019 and were the student team that took on the Stethoscope Adapter Cable project. They designed a very usable and cost-effective solution.

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Additional Thank You's:
While the four specialized HESS Accessories above became formal parts of the HESS Tools, there were numerous other efforts that were part of the HESS Project. These efforts represented some very solid work and accomplishments, but for reasons generally beyond the control of the HESS Project, they were not able to be included as formal elements of the HESS Tools. Thank you's are still in order for these efforts.

So, additional thanks go to Otterbein students William Winget, Connor Blair, Rachel Schwanekamp, Jamal Hassan, Juan Vera, Gage Wells, Connor Radune, Brad Calhoun, Maxx Purvis, and Brennan Griffin. Here's hoping no one has been omitted and apologies if anyone has been.

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