Design and Commercialization of a Medical Ultrasound Calibration Phantom for Rivanna Medical; Comparison of Pre- and Post-Social Media’s Contribution to Reforming Plant-Based Diets

There can be more than one suitable way to solve a problem. In this case, ensuring that medical equipment continues to function properly and having patients take a more active role in their health by following a plant-based diet are two solutions to wanting to encourage preventative health care practices in the United States. The calibration phantom is a medical device product that directly acts as a preventive tool for ultrasound equipment while social media marketing has been used to motivate users to take part in preventative health care practices. Some actors have a more significant role in preventing the emergence of certain issues or help eliminate existing barriers to promote the use of such preventative actions. BMETs are able to reduce the number of latent errors from uncalibrated ultrasound equipment with the use of calibration phantoms. With improved calibration phantoms, cost-related barriers are eliminated and make it easier for healthcare facilities to comply with ISO/IEC standards through increased testing. Food companies and other influencers are able to help prevent further environmental and animal cruelty-related ethical issues by raising awareness with the use of social media platforms like Instagram. Lastly, with the elimination of hesitant-related barriers for following a plant-based diet from the help of previous actors, consumers are now able to take on a more preventative approach to their health by following a plant-based diet.

Biomedical equipment technicians (BMETs) perform quality assurance tests on medical ultrasound equipment with the use of a calibration phantom. My capstone team and I have collaborated with Rivanna Medical to design and prepare the commercialization process for a novel multipurpose multi-tissue calibration phantom. The innovative phantom will eliminate cost-related barriers and in turn, help to promote the number of calibration phantoms within healthcare facilities to allow for more in-house testing. Increasing and maintaining the frequency of calibration testing will enable healthcare facilities in meeting ISO/IEC standards and patient expectations. However, patients are able to take a different but more direct approach related to their health by simply changing their diet.

A paradigm shift can be seen when there is a major change in scientific understanding or when other practices are adopted to replace the current one. The paradigm shift from traditional marketing methods to social marketing methods with the emergence of social media platforms like Instagram has helped to revolutionize plant-based diets and how they are also being viewed by users. Different actors such as the general and food company advertising methods, influencers, medical expert opinions, and consumers have been discussed both pre-and post-social media (Instagram) and analyzed. It was shown that advertising methods of and raising awareness of such issues varied between pre-and post-social media. The emergence of new social media marketing methods which allowed food companies and influencers to bring greater attention to motivating factors that encouraged the adoption of a plant-based diet to larger audiences. In addition, a more accurate analysis can be seen from users in the post-social media area with the creation of new technology.