Drip
t e a m B A C K G R O U N D
The Diabetes Reduction Initiative in Peñasco (DRIP) team originated from M-HEAL’s Service Abroad and Needs Assessment (SANA) spring 2020 initiative, when DRIP’s project team members traveled to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. Based on observations made at local clinics and interviews with doctors, patients, community members, and other healthcare workers, DRIP chose to focus on a major health concern in the Puerto Peñasco community: diabetes. Diabetes has been a growing concern in this local community, and in most of Mexico, particularly surrounding wound care education and access to assistive walking devices for diabetic amputees. This year, DRIP began developing a prototype for a prosthetic device and an educational vehicle. In the future, DRIP plans to visit Puerto Peñasco to further develop connections to the community and receive feedback on our current technical and educational proposed solutions.
DRIP is split into a technical subteam and an educational subteam. The technical subteam is focused on designing and testing a low-cost prosthetic leg for both above and below-the-knee diabetic amputees. DRIP’s educational subteam is currently creating and prototyping a pamphlet/brochure focused on relaying information about diabetic wound care.
Project Leads
Shifa Malik
Project Lead
mshifa@umich.edu
Adella Tenka
Technical Team Lead
atenka@umich.edu
Luke Volpenhein
Educational Subteam Lead
lukevolp@umich.edu