Ultra-Heart

This project focuses on training medical professionals and educators on how to do echocardiograms. The product is designed to help calibrate ultrasound machines. It educates nurses, focusing on fluid blood flow rather than dimensional accuracy, which is already well covered in the market.

I was developing a blood ultrasound phantom that is compact, affordable, and easy to clean. The design focused on usability in hospital and educational settings, ensuring it is portable, easy to store, and functional for training. By targeting fluid flow rather than structural calibration, the phantom provides practical, cost-effective support for medical professionals.

The Ultra-Heart project cost £237.50 and took just over six months to complete. Materials included ultrasound-sensitive gel wax, red-tinted acrylic, PLA and PVA-M filaments, and ABS resin. The heart was made using the ultrasound-sensitive material with internal chambers created by casting around a soluble stricter, which was then dissolved.

The Ultra-Heart is a functioning artificial heart that can be scanned ultrasonically. While the chambers weren’t perfectly accurate for calibration, the design can be improved with more precise heart scans. It serves as a practical training aid, is compact for easy storage, simple to use, and came in under budget.