{"id":12,"date":"2017-01-25T18:48:16","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T18:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2016\/?p=12"},"modified":"2021-01-08T09:33:25","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T17:33:25","slug":"clear-for-takeoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/fall-winter-2016\/clear-for-takeoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Clear for Takeoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who knew a pilot could teach doctors \u00a0a thing<\/strong> \u00a0or two about advancing the practice of medicine? Steve Barker \u201967, a licensed aviator, professor and anesthesiologist, uses his knowledge of physics and aeronautical engineering to improve the way physicians perform in the operating room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking what people have learned in aviation and applying it to medicine,\u201d says Barker, who graduated from Harvey Mudd with a bachelor\u2019s in physics and recently earned the College\u2019s Outstanding Alumni Award.<\/p>\n

For example, he compares the displays of a patient\u2019s vitals in the operating room to a pilot\u2019s cockpit instruments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn aviation, we can display everything digitally, but the brain registers analog information better. You can understand the position of a needle faster than digesting numbers,\u201d says Barker, who holds a PhD in aeronautical engineering from Caltech. \u201cAviation realized that years ago. Instrument displays show a picture of a needle (gauge), and if it\u2019s abnormal, you\u2019ll know in less than a second. Then you can look at the digital number.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Using his expertise as an engineer, researcher and clinician, Steve Barker \u201967 helped Masimo develop a more accurate, award-winning pulse oximeter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Barker helped make these ideas into reality by partnering with Masimo, a global medical technology company. The resulting product is called Root, a patient-monitoring platform that helps doctors instantly interpret the patient\u2019s vital information. Hospitals across the nation already use the display along with other innovative, noninvasive products Masimo has developed with Barker\u2019s help.<\/p>\n

One of Masimo\u2019s most well-known and widely used products is a pulse oximetry technology that accurately measures a patient\u2019s arterial blood oxygen saturation despite motion and low perfusion. When Masimo\u2019s founders Joe Kiani and Mohamed Diab learned of Barker\u2019s extensive research on pulse oximetry, they asked him to study their new idea.<\/p>\n

At the time, pulse oximeters couldn\u2019t accurately measure oxygen in the blood if the patient did not remain perfectly still\u2014nearly impossible for most people\u2014resulting in many false alarms and missed true alarms. Barker looked at the technology through the lens of an engineer, as well as a researcher and clinician, and helped Kiani and Diab refine their pulse oximeter idea into the product it is today. At its release in 1995, after six years of research and development, Masimo\u2019s pulse oximeter won the Excellence in Technology Innovation Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve changed the landscape of what\u2019s possible with pulse oximetry,\u201d Kiani says. \u201cHe was a huge contributor to Masimo\u2019s success. His reputation was stellar, and his research is one of the reasons we\u2019re here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pilot projects<\/h2>\n

In addition to the pulse oximeter and the Root monitor, Masimo continues to develop new products with Barker, a consultant who serves as the company\u2019s chief science officer, chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board and a member of its board of directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey listened to my crazy ideas and tried them out,\u201d Barker says. \u201cThat\u2019s gratifying to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, something he is currently pushing is improving the alarm system in the operating room. Again, he brings his knowledge of aeronautical engineering to the drawing board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen something goes wrong, the alarm just beeps,\u201d Barker says. \u201cYou can\u2019t tell where it\u2019s coming from or what measurements it\u2019s alarming. There\u2019s no useful information.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn modern airplanes, alarms don\u2019t just beep. They say \u2018too low\u2019 or \u2018collision alert\u2019 for example,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason we can\u2019t have those kinds of alarms in the operating room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Steve Barker ’67<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another idea, in its very early stages, comes from the heads-up displays projected onto pilots\u2019 helmets. Barker proposes surgeons wear goggles that display monitors in the corner of the doctor\u2019s vision. This would give the surgeon constant access to a patient\u2019s vitals and prevent the need to turn around to check monitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine trying to market an airplane where the pilot has to turn around 180 degrees,\u201d Barker says. \u201cBut that\u2019s the way it is in the operating room. All instruments are in the opposite direction of where the patient is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Operating a simulator<\/h2>\n

Even before he teamed up with Masimo, Barker found connections between medicine and aviation. While he was a professor at the University of Arizona, he persuaded the dean of the department of anesthesiology to buy a simulator to allow students to practice their skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a pilot is upgrading to a (Boeing) 747, the airlines aren\u2019t going to let you take it up and put it into a tailspin,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you have to know how to recover from that, so you learn in a simulator.\u201d<\/p>\n

During residency, he says, students can train for a variety of situations in the operating room. Some of these they will never encounter, but they must know how to respond in case of emergency. \u201cThey can \u2018fly that plane\u2019 in the simulator,\u201d Barker says.<\/p>\n

I realized how medicine was crying out for more engineers. I wasn\u2019t throwing away my engineering background. I was combining the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 STEVE BARKER \u201967<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Academia to medicine roundtrip<\/h2>\n

Medicine is a longtime passion for Barker that started in high school, but he put that idea aside and began his career teaching engineering students as a tenured professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

After about five years, Barker had what he calls an \u201cidentity crisis\u201d teaching the same classes every semester. So when he discovered the University of Miami offered an accelerated M.D. program for people with doctorates in the hard sciences, he seized the opportunity to follow his suppressed interest in medicine\u2014and never looked back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to work with my hands, so I thought I\u2019d be a surgeon,\u201d he says. \u201cBut after my first year of residency, I noticed what people were doing on the other side of the drapes was more fascinating to me, so I switched to anesthesiology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized how medicine was crying out for more engineers,\u201d he says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t throwing away my engineering background. I was combining the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his M.D., Barker went to the University of California, Irvine where he earned tenure and chaired the department of anesthesiology for several years before moving to the University of Arizona, where he again earned tenure and chaired the anesthesiology department, while also teaching aerospace and mechanical engineering.<\/p>\n

Though he ended his chairmanship in 2013, he still loves teaching, which he continues to do for physicians getting continuing education credits as well as educating Masimo employees about being a physician and what a cockpit is like.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m remembered for bringing medicine and engineering together, that makes me happy,\u201d Barker says. \u201cThat and the teaching that goes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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