Mayo Radiology (Zipper Team)

Meeting Time

TBD

Project Description

The Mayo Radiology Zipper team is striving to reduce the risk of falls during chest x-rays. Every quarter 2-3 patients fall and injure themselves when receiving a chest x-ray. The current solution is to have the patients either sit in a wheelchair or lay down completely. The wheelchair backing can be seen in the produced x-ray, decreasing the accuracy for reading the x-ray, while lying down puts the patient in a position that is not ideal as well. The solution that we have developed enables the backing of the wheelchair to rotate down and form a kind of stretcher. This allows for the wheelchair to be out of the visuals for the x-ray in an easy, effortless way, which in turn helps the Mayo radiology department remain efficient and safe. We currently have a prototype, have run tests and gotten back positive feedback on the design.

The goal for this semester is to continue developing the design and prototype from previous semesters and test different weight loads on in order to determine if our design is feasible. We will go through past team’s designs and prototypes in order to determine our goals for the semester. Based on information gathered from their results, further testing and research is needed on the prototype and a variety of sizes is needed.