Phoenix Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitor Project
Phoenix History
In February 12, 2002, Franz Halberg and Germaine Cornelissen gave a presentation on Chronobiology to the Twin Cities IEEE Systems Dynamics Study Group www.sdyn.tc-ieee.org. They claimed that the values for "normal" medical measurements were not static but cycled over regular time periods. It was a fascinating presentation that ranged from showing experimental data and models of typical daily cycles in blood pressure to yearly and multiyear cycles in body weight and blood chemistry. Franz speculated that even normal values for societal ethics may cycle over time.
During the discussion that followed their presentation, he asked if we, as electrical engineers, would develop a blood pressure monitor that would collect a week of blood pressure measurements. A group led by Curt McNamara agreed to do this.
Over the next 18 months they met. On September 30 2003, when Curt McNamara and El Nolley were working on a systems dynamical model and El mentioned that he wanted to get more experience with the medical technology marketplace, Curt asked if El would lead the blood pressure group, and suggested that they call it the Phoenix Project. Over the next two months, El contacted people who had participated or expressed interest.
We scheduled an initial planning meeting on November 16, 2003 and a follow-on meeting on November 20, 2003 with our 'customer' Franz Halberg and Germaine Cornelissen at the Halberg Chronobiology Center to learn about their needs.
Next, we met on 12/7 and 12/24 to discuss needs and product requirements. On 1/11/2004 and 1/25 Curt led us through a mind-map exercise to encompass possible issues, approaches and hot topics. On 1/25 Wade Peterson introduced us to Open Source as a way to deal with the cost of intellectual property. On 2/8 and 2/22, we discussed different technologies and design approaches.
On 3/7 Wade presented a detailed project description using piezo film and asked for help pursuing it. On 3/21 Wade presented a temporary website and discussed progress on two projects. By 4/4 El had migrated it to a permanent website at www.phoenix.tc-ieee.org and set up a list server at tc-ieee-phoenix@majordomo.tc-ieee.org to facilitate communications, Curt provided a proposed project on low power microprocessors, and Wade presented experimental data from his prototype piezo film blood flow sensor.
About This Page
This page is maintained by Ellis S Nolley. It was last updated on 28 October 2004.
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