We believe that through our research we will find that ultrasound patches are more effective, resourceful and cheap than the use of a traditional ultrasound.

N/A

Where did you get this idea?

• We really “love” Bio-chemical engineering so when I looked up articles about the subject we found this topic interesting. We also used the ink articles we found for another project called “Science In The News.”

What research did you do?

• We did research based on the articles corresponding to the subject, because there are next to nothing research projects or anything on google or any science related textbook/book.

Why/How are these findings important?

• Our research/MIT’s findings are important to- well the human population as well as maybe the population of creatures as well if there is enough research to show a new spark of data…. Well because the ultrasonic gel they use during ultrasounds called EcoVue which can cause inflammation of the skin and rashes or burns.

Who might want to know this information?

• People who run drug production companies and drug stores/ ultrasound technicians who could prescribe the product to patients.

MIT engineers created ultrasound patches that could view internal organs for up to 48 hours. If they could view organs for 48 hours could they make a larger microbiotic chip that could be able to hold more data for as long as a week?

They say they want to make these as accessible as band-aids. Could they be as accessible as band-aids and how would they need to be transported?  Would they tell you specifically how to put them on? Would you have to watch videos?

When they made these, how many times did they have to test the patches? How would they know what chemicals they use? Why did they use -Elastomer and solid Hydrogel-? Could they have used less expensive components?

Would they be like medication? Would there be an age limit for how many you can use

-MIT engineers develop wearable, stamp-sized ultrasound stickers for continuous imaging-

=The article explained the engineers wanted to make them as accessible as a book of stamps.

=They wish to make them be able to have them wirelessly connect to a machine.

=The patches can monitor tumor progression and fetal development with muscle overuse and overexertion.

=they can be attached to many body parts

=Hopefully able to communicate with AI algorithms to analyze the images on demand.

=’The MIT ultrasound sticker is about 3 mm thick and has a stretchy adhesive layer with a rigid array of transducers, which allows the device to conform to the skin so it can generate clearer, more precise images, Wang said. Two layers of elastomer in the adhesive layer encapsulate a middle layer of solid, water-based hydrogel for sound wave transmission.’

=should be like a sticker package if they are on the market.

Who, What, Where, When, Why.    (+Elastomer and Hydrogel) Who - Wrote the article The main article i’m using was written by Jim Hammerand

What - Is the article about MIT engineers develop ultrasound patches

Where - Did they get developed MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology

When - This product should be accessible in a decades or more

Why - Did they make this? So people would not have to spend time at appointments and get no results

Elastomer - An elastomeric material is any material exhibiting elastic or rubber-like properties. Generally speaking, elastomeric materials are measured in material type, compound, and durometer (the material's hardness).

Hydrogel - Hydrogels may be based on natural polymers, including macromolecules extracted from animal collagen, plants, and seaweed. These natural macromolecules are typically polysaccharides and proteins comprised of glycosidic and amino acid repeating units, respectively.

What is the main topic or idea of the article?

MIT engineers designed an adhesive patch that produces ultrasound imaging of the body. The stamp-sized device sticks to skin can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for up to 48 hours.

What does this mean for science?

This could change the world because the gel that they use during ultrasounds, called EcoVue, which is a water soluble solution that has been proven to be not the safest option.

(Background. Ultrasound gel has been associated with outbreaks of infection in various settings worldwide and risk of contamination of non-sterile ultrasound gel has been highlighted (1 to 9). Such outbreaks have typically included serious clinical infections (1 to 5, 8)) 

Which was written by: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ultrasound-gel-good-infection-prevention-practice/good-infection-pprevention-practice-using-ultrasound-gel 

So this could be the safer option as the adhesive is made with two thin layers of elastomer that encapsulate a middle layer of solid hydrogel

Why is this important to the world?

"Welcome to the era of 'wearable imaging. '" MIT researchers have created an ultrasound sticker that can continuously monitor a person's organs and tissues for up to 48 hours — potentially making ultrasound imaging as accessible and easy to use as Band-Aids. 

Which was written 

By: https://www.freethink.com/health/ultrasound-sticker

If they are as accessible as a bandaid this could save long trips to an ultrasound clinic or waiting for an opening for an appointment and if you live in USA they will be cheaper than a 200-800$ visit.

Questions and Other viewpoints

-If they can see all people’s organs can they see a growing child in a mothers stomach? And if so where would you have to put the device to view the baby.

-Can this device connect to your phone?

-Could they make this device to see cancer cells growing in the body 

-somebody commented on the article: 

CommonSense | August 1, 2022 at 8:32 pm | Reply

Yea, good luck with that. They will cost $15.00 to make and they will want to charge $52,000 each for them claiming they spent $2.7billion developing them when it was a few decimal places to toe right in all actuality, the majority of which was public money to boot. 

Which made us think about the thought of them trying to make these as accessible as band-aids which might cost more and even so you could get a defective one that has no chip or the adhesive is ruined or it has exploded because of the heat.

Hypothesis/ Thesis

We believe that through our research we will find that ultrasound patches are more effective, resourceful and cheap than the use of  a traditional ultrasound.

If they are as accessible as a bandaid this could save long trips to an ultrasound clinic or waiting for an opening for an appointment and if you live in USA they will be cheaper than a 200-800$ visit.

Over the course of a decade, we expect to see a increase of development usage because of the cheap manufacturing costs, however we do worry about the aforementioned comment;` as the commenter previously stated that the cost will likely be over inflated to how much it costs to produce.

Scitechdaily.com/tag/biocemical-engineering 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ultrasound-gel-good-infection-prevention-practice/good-infection-prevention-practice-using-ultrasound-gel

MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ultrasound - Mayo Clinic

Preparation and Evaluation of Polymer-Based Ultrasound Gel and Its Application in Ultrasonography - PMC (nih.gov)

We would like to thank Ms. Pond for letting us have this opportunity again in grade 8 and our parents and our friends for supporting us and helping us work on and present this project. We would also like to thank all our judges and CYSF sponsors for making this science fair happen and giving us this opportunity to participate, and thank you to the developers of the MIT ultrasound patches Xuanhe Zhao, Chonghe Wang and Xiaoyu Chen, Liu Wang, Mitsutoshi Makihata, and Tao Zhao at MIT, plus Mayo Clinic’s Hsiao-Chuan.