Topic:
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Biomedical Solutions To Mortality During A Surging National Opioid Epidemic
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Presenters:
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Thomas Slack
BS Physics Loyola University of New Orleans
BA Communications Loyola University of New Orleans |
Riley Mayes
BS Physics Loyola University of New Orleans
MSEE University of South Alabama |
John Whyte
BSME Loyola University of New Orleans |
Time:
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7:00pm – 8:30pm
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MEETING NOTES:
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Attendance will be via Zoom video conference. Please Register By Saturday December 26th !! Zoom invitations will be sent to the email you RSVPed with on Sunday, Dec. 27th.
ELECTION FOR 2021 ComSoc CHAPTER CHAIR Will Be Held At MEETING.
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RSVP:
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PDHs:
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1
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Cost:
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NO CHARGE!
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Abstract:
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“Biomedical Solutions To Mortality During A Surging National Opioid Epidemic”
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Project Abstract:
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Opioid overdose is a leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, an estimated 2.5 million
people struggle with addiction to opioids and every day more than 115 people die from opioid
overdose, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The arrival of the coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated this formidable disease. Shelter-in-place orders have pushed
individuals battling sobriety into isolation and have decreased access to treatment and opportunity
for distraction from addictions. The addiction community is raising alarms that the current
epidemiological climate alone is a risk factor for substance abuse relapse, prompting the New York
Times to label the coronavirus pandemic “a national relapse trigger. Thus, social distancing is
potentially concealing a surge of opioid abuse, and resulting morbidity and mortality, larger than
any we saw before. This growing crisis has policymakers, health care professionals, scientists and
others scrambling to find solutions to this national emergency. During an overdose, the respiratory
centers in the brain are suppressed. This leads to dangerous lowering of blood oxygen levels, loss
of consciousness, and eventually respiratory arrest and death. There are many initiatives to reduce
the death rate from opioid overdosing including providing naloxone, a medication that can rapidly
counteract and reverse the effects of opioids, to known drug users, their caregivers, and first
responders. Naloxone can be administered via intravenous infusion, intramuscular injection, or nasal
spray during an overdose. However, rescuers are often not present at the time of overdose. Clearly
there is a need for technologies to address these types of situations and opioid overdose, including
interventions against respiratory depression in isolated users. In response, Slack Enterprises and
T3SLA Innovations have created LifeWatch, a breakthrough device designed to detect and prevent a
potentially fatal effect that can occur in people using opioids. The device prevents respiratory
arrest and death from opioid overdose by monitoring blood oxygen in opioid recipients and prompting
them to breathe if oxygen falls below a certain level, while automatically administering Naloxone,
the reversal drug. The device also has an associated app that can notify emergency services. The key
components of the technology are: 1) a wrist-worn device that detects respiratory arrest based on
measures of blood oxygen levels, respiration rate, and heart rate; 2) a medication delivery device
that automatically administers Naloxone when respiratory arrest is detected, and 3) a companion app
that is installed on the user’s smartphone to contact an emergency call center with the user’s GPS
location when the system is triggered. The specific goals of this project have been designed to
demonstrate the feasibility of saving lives, validate the physiological measures obtained from the
connected wrist-worn wearable sensor, and evaluate technology acceptance from key stakeholders.
Slack Enterprises has already has already patented the process and demonstrated the capability to
build the other components of the system. A medical advisory board, consisting of doctors
specializing in addiction assists the team of engineers and scientists in the development of this
new technology, which the development team anticipates entering the testing phase mid-2021, and
project completion in early 2022.
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Biography:
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Thomas Slack Bio
Thomas Slack graduated from Loyola University New Orleans with a BS in Physics and a BA in
Communications. While at Loyola, Slack worked with Riley Mayes on a high-altitude conductivity
measurement experiment funded by NASA and the Louisiana Space Consortium, and continued that
research for over two years following graduation while working for a local tech firm as a design
engineer developing consumer-grade medical hardware. He began working with Mayes and John Whyte two
years ago to develop a solution geared towards addressing the mortality outcome of the nation’s
worsening opioid epidemic, which resulted in the team’s first patent submission earlier this year
for a device called “LifeWatch.” The trio founded a tech firm, T3SLA Innovations, which is headed by
Slack and continues to develop the hardware for the first round of devices, while awaiting funding
from the National Science Foundation.
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Riley Mayes Bio
Riley Mayes is an electrical engineer who works with plasma instrumentation to provide data
measurements of the earth’s ionosphere. The ionosphere helps to support all life on Earth. Since
it is important to study and understand the underlying principles of the earths’ atmosphere, it
is also equally important to understand the plasma properties of the earth’s mesosphere.
Mayes worked at the University of South Alabama as well as Loyola University New Orleans
providing electrical and software knowledge. He attended a short internship at NASA Marshall
Space Flight Center in 2012 where he conducted investigation into meteoroid science.
Mayes is a trained electrical and computer engineer who specializes in Multiphysics. Utilizing
program such as COMSOL, MATLAB, and CAD, Mayes conducts explorations into the natural and
engineering world.
Mayes holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Loyola University New Orleans and a
Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Alabama Riley is
also a member of IEEE and the Order of the Engineer. He is a founding member of T3SLA
Innovations, and lends software-development support to the LifeWatch project. |
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John Whyte Bio
John Whyte is a Mechanical Engineer with a background in Physics and Mathematics. During his
undergraduate years, Whyte conducted research under Dr. Martin McHugh exploring the phenomena of
quantum entanglement After constructing instrumentation that measured photon spin and counted
photon pairs, the team confirmed that the there was no evidence of local hidden variables and
that the interactions observed were truly non-local.
Whyte has also conducted research with Mayes and Slack, where the objective of the experiment
was to measure the ionic conductivity of the atmosphere as a function of altitude. The team was
the first to achieve significant results and have since patented the device, which resembles a
modified Gerdien condenser. Research endeavors on atmospheric conductivity continued after well
after the close of the research program, with the group presenting their methods and results for
IEEE New Orleans Section in the Summer of 2018.
Whyte resides in the D.C. metropolitan area where he currently works in project management for a
high purity mechanical contracting company. Whyte’s main focus with the company is with new
biopharmaceutical and laboratory construction. Between 2019 and 2020, Whyte was instrumental in
helping construct the new Emergent Biosolutions campus in Baltimore, MD, where the first
COVID-19 vaccines are set to be produced This facility was part of the federal initiative
Operation Warp Speed, which aimed to accelerate construction of new facilities to meet the
increasing demand for new medicines to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Whyte, along with Mayes and
Slack, is a founding member of T3SLA Innovations, and is credited with developing the first
LifeWatch concept for patent submission. |
