Development of a Microplate Accessory for Improved Bacterial Growth; The Unaddressed Role of Religious Beliefs and Emotional Damage in Violations of Informed Consent for Medical Procedures

The American biotechnology market is currently valued at $1 trillion and is expected to grow to $3 trillion by 2030. Innovations in healthcare-related technologies, therapeutics, and processes have led to billions of lives being saved and many deadly diseases being cured. As biomedical knowledge improves, technologies and methodologies operated within the healthcare industry must be scrutinously evaluated to ensure maximum benefit to society as a whole. Medical practices have an average shelf life of 5.8 years, necessitating constant innovation in the biotechnology space to remain clinically relevant. Without revisions to current medical practices, insufficient and ineffective solutions will continue to be perpetuated, endangering the people they are meant to protect. Therefore, the goal of this thesis portfolio is to address two areas in which outdated practices have resulted in improper medical treatment being delivered. The first area involves the creation of biomedical products based on inaccurate bacterial growth methods which will be covered in the Technical Report. The second area surrounds the divisive ruling on emotional harm as an actionable violation of informed consent and will be analyzed in the STS Report.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering
Technical Advisor: Shannon Barker
STS Advisor: Kent Wayland
Technical Team Members: Nina Brooks, Jared Mirt