Destroying ‘forever chemicals’
Two reactors before they are assembled. Courtesy of Igor Novosselov.
“Forever chemicals,” named for their ability to persist in water and soil, are a class of molecules that are ever-present in our daily lives, including food packaging and household cleaning products. Because these chemicals don’t break down, they end up in our water and food, and they can lead to health effects, such as cancer or decreased fertility.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed to give two of the most common forever chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS, a “superfund” designation, which would make it easier for the EPA to track them and plan cleanup measures.
Cleanups would obviously be more effective if the forever chemicals could be destroyed in the process, and many researchers have been studying how to break them down. A UW team led by Igor Novosselov, a research associate professor of mechanical engineering, has recently developed a new way to destroy both PFOA and PFOS. The researchers created a reactor that can completely break down hard-to-destroy chemicals using “supercritical water,” which is formed at high temperature and pressure. This technology could help treat industrial waste, destroy concentrated forever chemicals that already exist in the environment and deal with old stocks, such as the forever chemicals in fire-fighting foam.
Using modeling to improve health-care systems and policies
“I believe in evidence-based guidance to health policymaking and using some of these more advanced analytical tools that come from engineering,” says Shan Liu, an associate professor of industrial and systems engineering. Liu uses mathematical modeling to design and evaluate health-care interventions to improve patient care, enable better care delivery and inform policy decisions about disease management and prevention.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Liu led a team that used local data to develop a model and generate policy recommendations to help lower COVID-19 infections in King County. Currently, thanks to Population Health funding, she is partnering with the UW Department of Surgery to assess trauma center locations and services in Washington state and will use optimization models to suggest improvements to systems statewide. Liu is also actively working on a project at Seattle Children’s Hospital that utilizes simulation to address pediatric mental health needs.
“Technology can be great but if you don’t do the implementation or process or adoption correctly, it can have a disastrous effect. If the policy isn’t there, it doesn’t matter how good the technology is.”
At the global health level, Liu is applying optimization methods to determine the best locations for point of care machines that do pediatric HIV viral load and drug resistance testing in Kenya. “I’ve always had a strong interest in the intersection between technology and policy,” she says. “I feel like technology can be great but if you don’t do the implementation or process or adoption correctly, it can have a disastrous effect. If the policy isn’t there, it doesn’t matter how good the technology is.”
Better understanding emergency room patients’ social needs
Although most Americans visit hospital emergency departments to address acute illness and injury, doctors are finding that social needs place many patients at higher risk of getting sick and requiring emergency care. To better serve patients and possibly prevent future hospital visits, doctors need a way to assess incoming patients to establish a wider context behind their visit.
Screenshot of HarborBot. Courtesy of Gary Hsieh
This prompted a UW-led research team to develop a chatbot. “A few years ago there was a huge buzz around chatbots, and then people started realizing that maybe they aren’t meant for everything,” says Human Centered Design & Engineering Associate Professor Gary Hsieh. “We have been trying to figure out opportunities where having a chatbot would actually be meaningful and make sense.”
It turns out that emergency departments are one such place. HarborBot — named after the Seattle and Los Angeles hospitals where it was tested — is displayed on a tablet given to patients upon arrival. It takes patients through a social needs survey developed by the Los Angeles County Health Agency, posing questions about access to housing, food, medical care and physical safety. Medical staff are then able to consider the patients’ responses as part of their care.
Looking ahead, the team plans to design a survey system that could tailor the experience to each user.
“Ultimately we want to connect people entering emergency departments as smoothly as possible with the resources they need,” says Hsieh.