Unit 1 Question:

To What Extent Does our Health Depend on Technology?

Area of Interaction (AOI):

Health and Social Education

Significant Concept:

Our health is only as good as our health service

Clarissa Annunziata

Investigate

Problem

For this unit, I have to create a video or animation to educate a certain group on the

health benefits of a particular technology. With this video, I will try to raise awareness of

the problems related to this technology and hopefully teach a certain age group the

dangers and benefits of a particular technology. I will be able to achieve these things

thanks to my investigation which will help me in researching in depth the technology

and then present a video or animation to a certain group.

What kind of technology could I research?

Pacemaker

Dialysis for kidney’s problems

Electronic cigarette

Electronic toothbrush

After having discussed during lesson, I chose to research the health benefits of the

dialysis machine for kidney’s problem because I think that it is a very important machine

and without technology many people would’ve had many problems with their kidneys.

I will try to educate a certain group of people of what this machine does, how it helps

people and how it works.

How does the problem relate to me?

This project will help many people as it raises awareness of a specific technology that

can provide certain health benefits. I chose to research the dialysis machine and

fortunately, I don’t have any kidney problems so this type of technology isn’t directly

related to me, however I have met people who suffer from kidney problems and this

machine is essential for them to live.

How does the problem relate to the society?

This problem relates to the society in many ways because this technology provides an

enormous change in people’s life and in extreme cases, extending it. Many people

around the world need the dialysis machine to survive so, this problem is very relevant

to the society.

How does the problem link to the Area of Interaction?

This problem relates to mainly Human Ingenuity because as a goal I am creating a

video to raise awareness of the technology that I am researching and to teach a

certain group of people this. It also can be related to Health and Social Education

because I am researching the health benefits of this specific technology and sharing

my information to people.

Guiding Questions

I have to create some guiding questions that will lead into my research; these questions

will help me for my research and for the information that I have to find in my investigate

section.

“What are the health benefits of this technology?”

“How does this technology work?”

“How can I raise awareness of this technology with a video?”

“How can I find a variety of sources for my research?”

“How can I decide which age group to focus myself when creating the video?”

“How can I show the information that I researched?”

“How can I make this video interesting to a specific age group?”

Sources that I will need for my research

I came up with a variety of sources for my research, these are essential to have a good

range of different information to make sure that they are relevant, true and recent,

especially when we are talking about health related technologies because they can

change and improve in a short time. So, we have to make sure that sources are recent

and we have to back up them with clear evidence. I should have at least five sources

for my research:

Websites

Books

Magazines

Videos

Newspaper articles

Interview an expert

Television programs

Documentaries

Research: The Dialysis Machine Websites:

Does the job that a normal kidney should do

clean the blood and the waste exits the body through

urine.

People use it when they have kidney problems

The blood runs through tubes in the machine that removes salt and urea form the

blood

It takes about 4 hours and the patient has to go about three times a week

depending on the case

http://www.davita.com/treatment-options/hemodialysis/in-center-hemodialysis/how-

does-a-dialysis-machine-work?/t/5596

What does my dialysis machine do?

The dialysis machine mixes and monitors the dialysate. Dialysate is the fluid that

helps remove the unwanted waste products from your blood. It also helps get your

electrolytes and minerals to their proper levels in your body. The machine also

monitors the flow of your blood while it is outside of your body. You may hear an

alarm go off from time to time. This is how the machine lets us know that something

needs to be checked.

What are those plastic jugs sitting in front of my machine?

The plastic jugs hold the liquids used to mix the dialysate. The machine mixes the

dialysate, which is made up of an acidified solution, bicarbonate and purified

water. The acidified solution contains electrolytes and minerals. You may hear it

referred to as “acid.” The other solution is bicarbonate or bicarb, which is like baking

soda. Both are mixed inside the machine with purified water. While you are

dialyzing, dialysate and your blood flow through the dialyzer (but they never touch).

Fresh dialysate from the machine enters your dialyzer throughout your treatment.

Impurities are filtered out of your blood into the dialysate. Dialysate containing

unwanted waste products and excess electrolytes leave the dialyzer and are

washed down the drain.

How does my blood get in and out of my body?

Blood tubing carries your blood from your access to the dialyzer. The blood tubing is

threaded through the blood pump. You’ll see the blood pump turning in a circular

motion. The pumping action of the blood pump pushes your blood through the

dialyzer and back into your body.

What’s in the syringe that’s attached to my machine?

Blood tends to clot when it moves through the blood tubing. To prevent this the

nurse will give you a drug called “heparin.” Your doctor orders the amount of

heparin you get at each treatment. That amount of heparin is drawn up into a

syringe then placed on the machine into the “heparin pump.” The heparin pump is

programmed to release the right amount of heparin into your blood tubing during

your treatment. The heparin prevents your blood from clotting.

How does the machine keep me safe?

One problem that may occur during dialysis is that air gets into the blood tubing. To

prevent this from happening, blood tubings have two air traps built into them. One

trap is before the dialyzer and the other is after it. These traps catch any air that may

get into the system. If air does get past these traps an internal machine air sensor

shuts down the blood pump and an alarm will sound. All blood flow is stopped until

the air is removed.

Why are there so many alarms?

The machine continuously monitors the pressures created by your blood inside the

blood tubing and dialyzer. It also monitors the blood flow, temperature and proper

mixture of the dialysate. If any of these go out of range, the machine lets us know by

sounding an alarm, blinking lights and shutting down blood or dialysate flow. It also

lets us know if your blood pressure is too low or high.

1Book

I found a very interesting book on the dialysis machine called: Willem Jolff and the

invention of the dialysis machine (unlocking the secrets of science. I discovered

many things on the dialysis machine by looking at some previous of the book on

pdf.

Interview to Roberto D’Anchise (Doctor, friend of the family)

“Do you think that the dialysis machine is a benefit in people’s life?”

“I think that the dialysis machine is an incredible discovery in medicine because it

saved the life of many people who suffer from kidney problems

“Could you tell me more further in detail your opinion on the dialysis machine?”

“I think that it helps many people and even if it is a hard commitment doing dialysis

nearly every day, it is an incredible health benefit for people who have serious

problems. Many people do dialysis whilst waiting for a hope to receive a new

kidney etc. so; it gives the person more time and strength to stay alive and to

continue to live normally.

On the Internet I found a very significant statement that a specialist said; it made

me realize what kind of physical and mental aspect the patient goes through:

“I'm a dialysis tech and I know the many frustrating situations patients go through.

Whether its being taken off late/being put on late, how much it hurts when the

needles gets placed in, or sitting in that chair for eternity x3 a week...more

importantly the emotional stresses that they experience having to deal with dialysis

& their daily lives. Its very strenuous work but I believe that I should prioritize my

patient before my job. I cannot even imagine how life impacting it is to suddenly

have to go through dialysis and live your life with dialysis. I treat my patients like they

are my family and I give my heart out to them every time I see them. They are not

just patients, they are real people.”

1 http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Dialysis-Machine-Unlocking-Secrets/dp/1584151358

2Video

Design Brief

I will address my new problem stated to a specific group through a video. Since I am

researching the dialysis machine, the age group is quite general but I chose to focus

myself on my age group since I will show my final video in school. I will achieve my

problem by different steps. Firstly I will start with my research and investigating my

chosen technology. Then I will interview some people and create storyboards for my

video and test them with a survey. Testing my storyboards with a survey is very

important to understand which one is the best and which one is the most professional

and the one which has the right amount of research. When I decided which story

board I am going to produce into a video, I will create it and try and make it as

professional as possible.

I will have to organize my time well in order to hand in and create everything in time.

Thanks to a Gantt chart that I will create during the research, I will know what to do in

order to have everything ready in time.

My Goal

With this video, my goal is to educate a certain age group, in this case my age group,

on the health benefits of the dialysis machine. In the video I hope to include some facts

about the machine and how this helps many people around the world.

2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQKQ4eoKfTg

My Target Audience

The technology that I am researching can be targeted at everyone because many

people of different age need the dialysis machine. However, after talking with my

teacher, I decided to focus myself on school, hence the targeted audiences are

teenagers and my peers. I chose this because I will present my video in front of my

classroom and I hope to educate my peers on the health benefits of this technology.

Design Specification

Limits

Function Appearance Content Materials Size

There must not

be more than 1

technology

It must not look

childish

There must not

be too much

information

The music must

not interfere

with the rest of

the video

The video must

not be made in

a poor quality

It must not be

aimed at any

age group, it

has to be a

specific one

There has to be

images about

the technology

The video must

not be too long

or short

Demands

Function Appearance Content Materials Size

It must talk

about 1

technology

It has to be a

video or

animation

There has to be

information

related to the

technology

There must be

music

It has to be

high quality

It needs to be

aimed at a

specific age

group

It has to be

professional

There has to be

images

It has to be

created in a

video format

The video has

to have a

reasonable

length

The information

must be in

bullet points

Wishes

Function Appearance Content Materials Size

It should be

aimed at my

peers

It should be

professional

It should have

interesting

images

There should be

music, fitting

the topic

It should be

high quality

It should teach

something

There must be

at least 10 facts

It should be a

video or

animation

It should be

around 5 min

long

It shouldn’t

bore people

These three tables will help me make my specifications for the project to follow when I

am creating it. The limits and demands are very important for specific information such

as how long the video or animation is going to be is or how many facts to put about the

information.

Test Plan

Test Name Actual Outcome Comments/ improvements

needed?

Is the video at least 5

minutes in length?

Does the video contain at

least 10 facts about the

chosen technology?

Does it talk about only one

specific technology?

Does the video aim at a

specific age group?

Does the video look

professional?

Is the video interesting?

Is there suitable music in the

video?

Is the information clear and

easy to understand?

Are there enough images?

Is it high quality?

Is it a video or animation?

Do at least 5 people find

my video interesting?

This table is a test plan that I will have to complete once my video or animation is

created. It shows all of the demands, limits and wishes previously stated in the design

specification. It will be very useful to understand which aspects of my video needs

improvement and to see if I did everything following my design specification. Moreover,

it will help me when I will evaluate my whole project against the design specification.

I am going to create another test plan to complete and I chose to do a survey at my

age group and people in school, to understand if my video is interesting, professional

and if it is suitable for my age group. Creating two different test plans will help me have

a variety of opinions to follow and this way you can really understand what is wrong

and right in my video.

Questionnaire

This is a questionnaire that I am going to ask to complete to at least 4 people to get a

clear opinion that will help me to evaluate my video. This is another type of test plan.

Do you like the video?

Did you learn something new from it?

Did you find it entertaining?

Is it professional?

Does the music interfere or disturb you?

Is it clear?

Is it high quality?

What would you change?

Any other comments?

Evaluating my performance

During this stage of the design cycle, I had to decide some crucial things for my project,

such as, choosing the technology that I will talk about, choosing which age group to

focus on and doing the design brief and design specification. In this section, there

wasn’t a very difficult thing to do, so I didn’t struggle with much. However, I struggled a

bit in choosing my demands, whishes and limits because I had to carefully choose

everything that I wanted in my video. I could’ve added more things in my test plan and

questionnaire to make it more professional.

When writing the Design Brief and Design Specification, I had to think of every little

detail that is going to be in my video. I chose carefully the time limits, how many facts

there will be about the technology and if I am going to create a video or an animation.

These specifications will help me when I will evaluate my designs against it and see if I

followed it thoroughly.

For the testing part, I chose to do a questionnaire and testing plan. Creating two

different test plans will help me to give a clear opinion of my video and then it is easier

evaluating the whole thing with the opinion of more people.

The research that I did wasn’t very long because the most important facts are written

and, in my video I don’t want to fill it with lots of information. However, I used more than

four sources such as videos, books, websites and an expert.

For my next project, I want to do create an even more detailed specification because

they are essential to carry out a project and to evaluate it against it.

Design

Storyboards

In this second stage of the design cycle, I have to create storyboards for my video. I

have to create more than one of it because I then have to choose the best one and

evaluate it against the design specification. The storyboards have to be very detailed;

for example, there can be included if there’s a close up, if there’s a song, how many

seconds or minutes does the clip last ecc.

Storyboard #1

Storyboard #2

Storyboard #3

Storyboard #4

Bibliography

"HowStuffWorks "How does a kidney dialysis machine work?"." HowStuffWorks "Science".

N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/everyday-

innovations/question17.htm>.

S., Joe, and DaVita Bio-medical Technician. "How Does a Dialysis Machine Work? -

DaVita." Kidney disease and dialysis information - DaVita. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.davita.com/treatment-options/hemodialysis/in-center-hemodialysis/how-

does-a-dialysis-machine-work?/t/5596>.

http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Dialysis-Machine-Unlocking-Secrets/dp/1584151358

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQKQ4eoKfTg