HPU Physics Professor Granted Potentially Life-Saving Patent

Dr. Briana Fiser, assistant professor of physics at High Point University, was recently granted a U.S. patent for a medical diagnostic device that could eventually help save lives.

Fiser developed small, micron-sized rods, which can be used to detect how well a patient’s blood is clotting. According to the patent, the rods can be used by paramedics in a future point-of-care medical device that would help them determine what life-saving measures they should or should not use on patients.

“Immediately after a trauma occurs, the shock sustained by the tissues in a patient’s body affects that patient’s clotting abilities,” explains Dr. Briana Fiser, assistant professor of physics at HPU. “The patient could develop what is called a trauma induced coagulopathy, a clotting disorder that could mean a decreased ability to form a blood clot. People who are admitted to the emergency room with a trauma induced clotting disorder are four times more likely to die from their injuries, and a quarter of patients admitted to an emergency room for trauma have a coagulopathy.”

Fiser was awarded the patent along with researchers Rich Superfine, Richard Spero, Adam, Shields and Ben Evans at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The next step is to build and test the devices.