The ScubaScope
In Too Deep team: Jordan Wright, David Liu, Richard Cosenza, Manuel Steinbach, Brandon Hernandez, and Charles Van De Mark
Sponsored by: Dr. Kimberly Newman Frey and Dr. Frank Barnes
The ScubaScope will address long and short term cardiovascular health concerns associated with deep sea scuba diving. Cardiovascular health is one of the most severe health risks for scuba divers. As described by the British Cardiac Society (and many others), these issues can include pulmonary oedema, hypertension and structural heart disease, arrhythmias, and intracardiac shunts.Ìý
The Diver Alert Network (DAN) has identified an analysis of heart and lung signals as a top priority in investigating incidents of injury. The ScubaScope allows the user to capture such signals from their heart and lungs in audio form during a dive, able to be synced to and processed with dive computers for an immediate post dive analysis of cardiovascular performance. The ScubaScope integrates seamlessly and comfortably under the scuba diving suite and uses a piezoelectric sensor under the rib cage to pick up the auditory cardiovascular signals. The device has enough power to take samples for three, 40 minute dives a day before recharging.
The primary beneficiaries of The ScubaScope are older and at risk members of the scuba diving community (typically 40+ years old). People of this demographic are most likely to benefit from heart and breathing pattern monitoring while diving, and currently, frequent trips to the doctor is not a cost effective solution for them.
The closest related device available on the market to measure heart readings in this manner would be wearable electrocardiograms (EKGs). There are several issues with this kind of sensor for scuba diving purposes. First EKGs cannot measure lung signals as the ScubaScope can, and such signals play a vital role in detecting cardiovascular problems. Additionally, EKG’s need to be placed carefully and precisely in order to function properly.Ìý
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