Designing a Focused Ultrasound Crosslinkable Scaffold for Immunomodulation and Chemotherapeutic Drug Delivery; Analyzing the Influence of Health Insurance on Patient Outcomes 3 views

More than 1 in 3 people are diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. However, a cancer diagnosis brings further challenges, such as determining appropriate treatments and managing the costs of care. My capstone project aims to create an injectable hydrogel scaffold that crosslinks using focused ultrasound. The scaffold is composed of components that can contain cancer drugs and promoting binding of cancer proteins to serve as a potential cancer therapeutic for individuals diagnosed with cancer. My STS research paper seeks to analyze the influence of health insurance on health outcomes. Health insurance serves as a crucial factor that may influence if an individual is able to afford treatment and how likely an individual may receive early diagnoses that allow for greater chances of survival. These two topics are intrinsically related, as the therapeutic treatments must be paid for and can only occur following disease diagnosis. A novel cancer treatment is only provided to patients by payment through health insurance. Currently, tumor removal surgery along with chemotherapy and radiation therapy are the primary cancer treatment modalities for many solid tumors. If possible, surgery removes all the localized cancerous tissue from the body, to prevent the cancer from metastasizing. However, the resection of the tumor leaves a cavity that must be filled. As hydrogels are able to conform to irregular shapes, different parameters of hydrogels can be modified to create a gel that is able to provide immunomodulation and selectively react towards biological systems. By using focused ultrasound (FUS), the hydrogels may be crosslinked via a precise yet non-invasive external stimulus. Granular hydrogels were synthesized using norbornene modified hyaluronic acid (NorHA) and gelatin B microgels. Nanofibers were electrospun on a mandrel using NorHA and a PEO co-spin solution. These components were crosslinked using FUS and the storage modulus was measured against ultraviolet light, a common crosslinking method. NorHA, gelatin B, and NorHA scaffolds were encapsulated with different sized particles such as rhodamine B or fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) to assess diffusion of drugs following injection. Drug release assays were performed to assess drug kinetic release of each scaffold component and the total scaffold. Overall, our project demonstrated that an injectable gel crosslinked via FUS is comparable to UV-crosslinking and can deliver chemotherapy drugs to a cancer tumor microenvironment. This project aims to identify the influence of health insurance on patient outcomes, examining different factors that may influence health insurance coverage and how these factors ultimately affect health outcomes. Health insurance is a social determinant of health as it controls a key component of accessing health care. Health insurance provides the financial means to access timely medical services when ill. Increased access to healthcare allows patients to obtain preventative screenings and vaccinations that lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment of conditions. Regular check-ups for early detection of disease symptoms even allow certain reversible illnesses to be avoided completely. For many people in the United States, cost is the major barrier to receiving healthcare. Currently, approximately 90% of US residents are insured as citizens rely on health insurance to manage the high costs of many routine exams and treatments. Through analyzing current and past policy on health insurance along with journal articles by researchers who collected data on health outcomes across different population groups, health insurance can be described as a crucial factor in determining health care access and ultimately health outcomes. Policy on health insurance contains many loopholes that insurance companies exploit at the expense of the health of its insured customers. Additionally, individuals with disparities such as race, income, and geographical location, all pose additional barriers to receiving health care which is often exacerbated by health insurance. Although health insurance may not be the only factor, it is one critical actor in the healthcare system that often perpetuates existing disparities. These latent effects of health insurance which place disproportionate burdens of illness and death on minority populations need to be exposed and addressed to prevent society from further harming those who need the most help.

BS (Bachelor of Science)

Focused Ultrasound; Hydrogel; FEMP; Health Insurance

School of Engineering and Applied Science Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering Technical Advisor: Chris Highley, Matthew DeWitt STS Advisor: Pedro Francisco Technical Team Members: Malik Hickman

English

All rights reserved by the author (no additional license for public reuse)

2026-05-08