Last February, Dr. Ivan R. Burgos, who specializes in emergency medicine at Kaiser Permanente, told his son, sophomore Gabriel Burgos, about an incident where a heart monitor failed to detect a pulse, leading to a patient being declared dead two hours prematurely.

Dr. Burgos explained what could have been done to prevent the malfunction, which prompted the two to then brainstorm a possible design for a biomedical device that could identify patients’ heartbeats with more accuracy by accounting for the patient’s weight.

“[The hospital’s heart rate monitors] are unstable because their precision depends heavily on the weight of the attached patient,” Gabriel said. “Due to this malfunction, the patient’s presumed death time was inaccurate, especially because he was rather large.”

When Gabriel’s dad shared the design with his colleagues and the board director at Kaiser Permanente, they all believed that the prototype could be a turning point in the medical field. Encouraged, Gabriel decided to pursue the project.

Getting the project up and running

Gabriel first spent roughly two weeks with his father planning and creating a blueprint for the prototype.  

Gabriel then embarked on the task of researching suitable materials like circuitry and microprocessor hardware and concepts from microfluidic technology that would fit his criteria. He was later able to gather materials from Kaiser and local stores such as Home Depot and Fry’s and began to work on it for up to four to five hours a day, 20 hours a week.

“I was willing to do anything to make the invention not only as small as possible, but also as convenient,” Gabriel said.

During the process, Gabriel turned to his father for guidance and support.       

“My dad taught me some of the principles and basics of hard drives and microfluidic technology,” Gabriel said. “When I was growing up, he would take apart an original invention such as a computer and tell me how the different parts work together.”

Despite his great start on the project, Gabriel has encountered many obstacles such as patent issues that have pushed the release date of the prototype. Getting a patent includes checking every similar invention that was ever patented, determining the filing date — the date when the invention is filed at the United States Patent & Trademark Office and is used as a cutoff date for application of references, considering expedited examination of the patent and ultimately paying the issue and publication fee, which is around $1,000.

Gabriel has also encountered difficulties with creating a final version for his prototype that best corrects the monitors’ malfunction. Gabriel has made three versions, each being an update from the last. Since his first version was too large, he decided to shrink it by changing the materials and structure.

“When I was coming up with the second version of the prototype, I got all these supplies and incorporated new ideas from the journals [that were full of my notes] into its design,” Gabriel said. “Before I tested out the second version, I worked so hard for weeks thinking that it would work with its new adjustments, but when it actually did not work, I was just so frustrated.”

Currently, Gabriel is in the process of tweaking his third version in hopes of it being the final.

“Making a hospital appliance while simultaneously doing homework and studying for tests has been strenuous, but I think that helping others with this device is worth the wait,” Gabriel said.

Because he wants to create a prototype that will be devoid of any glitches and as convenient as possible, Gabriel will wait a few years before he hopes to launch his device in 2017.

Father-son relationship strengthens

Through this project, Gabriel enjoyed reconnecting with his father. Since his father works so much in his job, Gabriel doesn’t see him as much as he would like to.

In the beginning of the process, Gabriel and his father worked regularly on the project at home, spending long hours figuring out the specifics of the prototype.

Despite each having hectic schedules and his father’s travel schedule that includes visits to places, Gabriel and his father still found time to discuss updates.Through this constant communication, Gabriel noticed how similar he and his father are and how ambitious they are.

“My mom would always compare me to him and say that I was just like my father, which made [me] feel a lot closer to him,” Gabriel said.

Changing perspectives and future outlooks

Not only has his relationship with his father grown, but Gabriel also has become more ambitious by taking on this project.

Since Gabriel’s parents both grew up in less privileged neighborhoods and yet graduated from elite universities, they have high expectations for Gabriel’s future.

According to Gabriel, the summer before high school, he experienced a rough time due to his parents’ high expectations, causing him to believe that he was destined to fail.

Despite these differences with his parents, Gabriel found support from close friends and teachers, who helped him realize how fortunate he is to live in an affluent community like Saratoga, where he has more opportunities than his parents did.

With this new idea for an improved heart rate monitor, Gabriel hopes that he can be successful as long as he continues to work diligently.

“I have now learned to set academics as a priority, even though school can be time consuming,” Gabriel said. “My goal for this year is to move forward with the project, making more adjustments to it and finally getting the patent.”