Dr. Smith completed his undergraduate work in electrical engineering at Princeton University. He received a master of science in electrical engineering degree from the University of New Mexico and his Ph.D., also in electrical engineering, from the University of Oklahoma.
After a post-doctorate at the School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Dr. Smith joined the Sacramento State faculty in 1973. His field is Biomedical Engineering and he served as Coordinator for the Biomedical Engineering Program from 1996 to 2005.
His research has focused on three areas: anesthesia monitoring; virtual instrument monitoring for human factors engineering in health care; and wearable medical monitors for everyday living. Dr. Smith and his students have collaborated with anesthesiologists to develop and test a number of improved methods of monitoring the depth of anesthesia. A particularly significant accomplishment was his development of a new measure for assessing the performance of depth-of-anesthesia monitors, called Prediction Probability, PK which has been adopted as a world-wide standard.
Dr. Smith and his students have collaborated with surgeons to develop and use monitoring systems to measure the physical and mental stresses of performing minimally invasive surgery. His most advanced work to date monitors three channels of EMG and six channels of body orientation and motion to record the surgeon’s physical stress and monitors the electrocardiogram (EGG), from which heart rate and heart rate variability are computed, and skin conductance to record the surgeon’s mental stress.
In collaboration with researchers at Shriners Hospital for Children of Northern California, Dr. Smith and his students currently are developing miniature wearable monitors to automatically detect falls and activity levels in children with cerebral palsy during everyday living. This work is being extended to monitor falls and activity patterns in children with other neuromuscular conditions, such as muscular dystrophy and Friedreich’s ataxia.
Dr. Smith is the recipient of numerous grants; he has published more than thirty articles and over two dozen abstracts. His work appears in more than three dozen conference proceedings. One hallmark of his work has been his involvement of students with all of his research. He has advised more than sixty students with their master’s thesis. In addition he has been very active in university and community initiatives, and currently serves as the liaison from the College of Engineering and Computer Science to the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance’s MedStart Program.
ABSTRACT:
A Sacramento State Biomedical Engineer: Developing New Monitors to Help Surgery Patients, Doctors, Nurses, and Children
Miniature electronics and computers, digital signal processing, and wireless technologies have made new medical monitors possible. Sacramento State partners device development with UC Davis Medical Center, Shriners Hospitals for Children, Sutter Health, and Kaiser Permanente for medical device development. This presentation gives three examples of medical monitor development at Sacramento State by Biomedical Engineer Warren Smith and his students.
The first example involves the improved monitoring of surgery patients. Anesthesiologists administer a mix of agents to surgery patients to induce unconsciousness, suppress pain, and prevent patient movement. If the mix is not correct, a patient can have the traumatic experience of being totally paralyzed, while feeling all the pain of surgery. Dr. Smith and his students developed a depth-of-anesthesia monitor based on the patient’s brain waves (the electroencephalogram, or EEG) that is more effective than using the traditional cardiovascular and respiratory indicators. Dr. Smith also developed a new performance measure, called PK, now used worldwide in research to further improve depth-of-anesthesia monitors.
The second example is the development of wireless, multi-channel physiological monitors that measure the physical and mental stresses experienced by surgeons while they perform video-endoscopic and robot-assisted surgery. These monitors have helped improve surgical instrumentation and procedures. In studies on nurses, these monitors also have helped identify ways to reduce the stresses that nurses experience while repositioning bedridden patients.
The third example is the development of miniature, wearable devices for long-term activity monitoring of children during everyday living. The devices keep a minute-by-minute log of the child’s activity level and also record each time the child falls down within a two- week period. The devices will be used for pre- and post-treatment monitoring of children with cerebral palsy to determine the effectiveness of medical treatments.
• Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award>
