Team: Diego Alcantar, Yining Chen, Suhaas Garre, Sarah Ogden

Client: Arash Afshinnik, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Neurology, UCSF School of Medicine, Fresno

Problem: The intensive care unit (ICU) is a hectic environment, with a dire need for clear and effective communication between multiple stakeholders. Numerous information streams are flowing, continually and asynchronously.  Critical communication channels include transmission of bedside data to the nurse (vital signs alarms, infusion pump completion), from the patient family to the nurse (questions for the day), from the family to the physician (questions for the day, allow for multiple languages) and from the nurse to the physician (asynchronous communication).

Outcome: Students designed a communication device to streamline updating and educating families in the ICU to improve the health, satisfaction, and patient outcomes.