Many medical conditions require health care providers to make rapid and accurate assessments of a patients hemodynamics to diagnose and guide treatment. Of the parameters that encompass hemodynamic evaluation (such as heart rate and blood pressure), one remains woefully measured: intravascular volume status. A measure of how much blood a subject has with which to perfuse oxygen, deliver nutrients, and remove wastes, volume status lays the foundation of many types of fluid based treatments for the acutely and critically ill in emergency rooms and intensive cares units to the chronically ill of cardiovascular and dialysis centers. Yet for all its physiological importance, many current assessments of volume status and responsiveness have a predictive power around the level of a coin flip. This work seeks to remedy this dire situation by improving a technique already utilized at the bedside (ultrasound measurement of inferior vena cava collapsibility) and introducing another that could be used through all echelons of care (dynamic respiratory impedance volume evaluation). Such a multimodal approach to hemodynamic monitoring serves the needs of both physicians and their patients across many clinical environments and ought to improve outcomes.

Barry Belmont is a Lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, serving also as an Adjunct Faculty for Shanghai Jiaotong University's Joint Institute. His work has spanned the spectrum of medical devices, from development to commercialization, from research to teaching, with an emphasis in physiological signal and image processing. Previously Dr. Belmont has worked in both legal and governmental sectors focusing on the medical technology portfolios of clients. He earned his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan and holds dual B.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and biology from the University of Nevada