Week 1: An Unexpected Art Project

My first week at Phoenix Children's Hospital was full of new and exciting experiences.

A lot of my time was spent becoming acquainted with all the resources a huge hospital like this has to offer, apart from the essential coffee machines. One of these resources is the Emily Center, a library built so families can have easy and free access to information about their child's health. In addition to that, all the researchers, nurses, doctors, and other staff at the hospital are extremely friendly and ready to answer any questions I may have. 

Before I can start scanning wounds on actual patients, I had to find a way to conceptualize how the laser scanner wound models would look, followed by submitting proper regulatory proposals to ensure patient safety and privacy. This puts me onto the art project alluded to in the title. 

The materials I started with were a suture pad, bottle of liquid silicone, stacks of two-ply toilet paper, and blood paste. After adding layers of liquid silicone and toilet paper,  the model looked like this:

The next step was to cut through the silicone and suture padding to produce the actual wound. After the texture was just right, I added extreme amounts of blood paste which stained my fingers a pretty ominous color. 

Next week, I will try to smooth out the edges of the wound to look more like skin. I will try to use molding wax makeup to achieve this, but I am wondering if super glue will be enough to hold the wax down. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a picture of the finished product in my next blog post, so stay tuned. 

I will end this blog post with a quote that stuck with me. As I was explaining my project and methods to the other members of the lab, my external advisor called it a "redefinition of the language of wound healing." I will use that eloquent and accurate rendering of my senior project as I embark on new tasks over these next few weeks. 

Until next time!