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October 17, 2010, Sunday A STUDENT of Curtin University of Technology has come up with a prototype bio-medical product in the form of an enhanced version of the wireless electrocardiogram (ECG ) to detect a sleep disorder called sleep apnea.
SURGERY IN PROGRESS: Nurul (left) in the operation theatre.
The machine, still in the experimental stage, needs further refining for optimal performance.
Bio-engineering final year student Nurul Jameela Nor Mazlan, who is involved in the project, told thesundaypost the machine had enormous potential in helping doctors to obtain data from would-be patients to prescribe the right treatment.
“There are still a few problems to solve. Presently, the prototype cannot detect the electrical activities for the sleep disorder in more refined manner. But we are working on it. Hopefully, after all the fine-tuning, the device will be able to produce the data to help doctors make a clear diagnosis,” she said.
This medical science research project somewhere in the heart of Borneo and a small city of the world will always be special to the 23-year-old West Malaysian undergraduate.
For her, it is something she will cherish for a lifetime — and may also be the first of many scientific inventions she will come with.
She had earlier made a name for herself by winning an “Ambassador Award” from the Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB) to represent the state and the Bureau at the Bio-med 2010 Conference in Innsbruck, Austria, this year.
There, she met some of the world’s renowned bio-medical technologists and scientists — from the Middle East to Japan — and also helped promote Sarawak as an MICE venue.
She is grateful to all the people who have helped her, saying with their support, she was able to learn and share her experiences, do her research and join most of the presentations on the ECG machine.
She is delighted to have had the opportunity to meet people with “impressive research ideas” the world over.
Nurul revealed during the presentations, she was particularly interested in four papers related to her project and which she is now using in her research.
She was also excited about the invitation to the Ain-Shams University Cairo, Egypt, in June this year where she saw for herself how bio-medical scientists worked at medical faculty on the ECG machine.
Meanwhile, back at her university’s lab, she is helping her mentor, Dr Wong Kiing Ing, to perfect the prototype.
Upbeat about the prospects, Nurul said if successful, the machine would help a lot of people with sleep apnea to get the treatment they needed.
The research is currently funded by Curtin and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry and she hopes there will be more funding from the government to help them continue their work.
On treatment with the machine, she said a pacer would be placed on the chest of a suspected sleep apnea patient and the small electrical activities would detect whether he or she had the condition.
“Information will be produced through electrical waves, and the transmission of data to any medical centre can only be done for as long as there is Internet facility.”
According to Nurul, this is where the machine will be very useful in helping doctors to make a faster diagnosis and patients to better manage their condition.
“The data obtained will enable specialists to find the right treatment and prescribe the follow-ups. This can definitely save lives.”
Sleep apnea is very rare as only eight per cent of the world’s population have it.
According to medical sources, it is a sleep disorder, characterised by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep. Each pause in breathing, called an apnea, can last from a few seconds to minutes, and may occur five to 30 times or more an hour.
Nurul noted that the condition also existed among the people in the interior of Sarawak and this has spurred her to research the subject.
She hoped that once the machine was ready, treatment could be extended to the population at large, especially people living far from medical facilities.
As Sarawak is a very vast state with a myriad geographical constraints, such a machine will be ideal as it not only saves travelling costs to obtain treatment in town centres but more importantly, also lives of people who cannot afford to make such trips.
Nurul is hopeful the prototype will attract the interests of bio-medical specialists around the world, saying these experts can work with local scientists in inventing new medical devices for the good of mankind.
She also hoped with the opportunity from Curtin to carry out her research, people around the world would get to know the works of local scientists and help them develop their expertise in this part of the world.
Nurul is interested in bio-engineering because she said Malaysia was behind in such a technology as well as bio-medical science compared to Australia and Europe.
By taking up her course, she hoped to contribute to the betterment of healthcare in the rural areas.
She said she would keep working to perfect the ECG machine and may also go for her masters in bio-engineering.
Marketing and Communications manager Amelia Roziman said the SCB would continue to bring various experts to this part of the world.
“This is how they can bring the state and the country due recognition in the scientific field, and help young people like Nurul to be on par with scientists around the world.
Amelia added that those interested could apply for the scholarship award programme from SCB.
For more information, contact 6082-24 2516 (tel), 6082-24 2519 (fax) or info@sarawakcb.com (email).
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Karen Gambrel is a certified polysomnographic technologist at the Avera St. Luke's Sleep Lab..