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• AUGUST 2021
‘Help us help you’ Halifax Health nurses urge community to get vaccinated
JARLEENE ALMENAS ASSOCIATE EDITOR
W
hile organizations and community members have showed their support for health care workers by gifting lunches, holding parades and lots of banners expressing their thanks, there is one more thing the public can do, according to Halifax Health: Get vaccinated. Cherene Sipe, a nurse manager of critical care at Halifax Health Medical Center, has had a front row seat to how the latest wave of COVID-19 infections has impacted the health care system. “Half of our census in the medical ICU is COVID-related patients,” Sipe said. On Aug. 6, Halifax Health reported having 148 COVID-19 patients under its care. This figure is higher than any prior wave of infections, and on Monday, Aug. 9, the Florida Health Department reported a three-day average daily case count of 18,795. The majority of the patients coming into the hospital are unvaccinated, and some have expressed regret over not taking the vaccine. “If they could go back in time and get their vaccine, I think that’s one thing that they would have done,” Sipe said. ‘WE NEED THE COMMUNITY TO HELP US’
In the past COVID-19 waves of infections, hospitals generally knew what to expect regarding a patient’s chance of needing critical care. The virus tended to be
50 years!
MOAS celebrates 50th-anniversary with 70s-themed celebration. Read more at www.OrmondBeachObserver.com Photo by Michele Meyers
Board members Tom Hart, Leila Gosney, Katherine Miller, Allison Morris Zacharias, Ann Phillips and executive director Andrew Sandall stand in front of the memory wall at the Museum of Arts and Sciences 50th birthday celebration.
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ERAU undergrads use 3D printing to help infants Undergraduate researchers at Embry-Riddle fabricate femurs and hips of various densities, designed to mimic the fragility of infant bones during development.
MIKE CAVALIERE NEWS MANAGER, EMBRY-RIDDLE
Mechanical Engineering students are impacting the field of health care with newly designed 3D-printed models that may help babies with hip dysplasia, a condition where the hip socket is shallow or ill-shaped, resulting in pain and worn out joints. Six undergraduates and one Ph.D. student from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are working on the project, combining their efforts across various areas of research to tackle this condition, which affects two to
three children per every 1,000 born, according to the International Hip Dysplasia Institute. “As a graduate student, Tamara Chambers is currently developing an infant musculoskeletal model using motion-capture,” said Dr. Victor Huayamave, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and faculty advisor for the project. “Two undergrads are developing finite element models using CT (computed tomography) and MR (magnetic resonance) images. Another student is developing models from cadaveric images. A group of three is building a 3D model of an infant with hip dys-
plasia to help train medical professionals. “The objective of the trainer is to improve the accuracy of medical diagnoses of DDH (Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip) and reduce the cost of current industry models,” said Pedro McGregor, a Mechanical Engineering senior who led the 3D manufacturing aspect of the work. The 3D-printed models, inspired by a specimen from an anatomical museum, will help physicians-in-training understand what’s happening when SEE UNDERGRADUATE PAGE 2