Science

A device for each disease

Students regard the course Medical Device Prototyping as the most practical part of their education. The results were presented at the MedTechWest event last Tuesday.


Light and Open


The closed upper arm fitting that the Tonke de Jong and Claire van Mill showed (2nd and third from left on photo) looked like something from the 1950’s: a bulky and heavy skin coloured plastic hulk with leather straps. Nonetheless 340 thousand people in the US missing their upper arm rely on such a contraption. They often suffer from reduced mobility and skin problems because of perspiration under the prosthesis. The lightweight alternative ‘Open Fit’ that De Jong and Van Mill designed makes maximal use of modern lightweight materials resulting in an open structure that is much lighter, allows greater mobility and causes no perspiration or skin problems.


At the end of the Medical Delta MedTechWest event, the jury consisting of doctors, instrument makers and constructors declared ‘Open Fit’ as the best design of this year’s batch.

 

Gloves are off
Gloves are off

Gloves are off


Master students Andrea Arneri and Aravindan Sooryanarain (on photo) developed an alternative for the hook that hand amputees are equipped with. There’s an interesting dilemma here, notices their supervisor Dr. John van den Dobbelsteen. “If the prosthesis looks too much like a real hand, it scares people off.” The hand that the students developed is realistic in form, but not in colour. It doesn’t hide its artificiality. It’s light blue; it has independently moving fingers (all 3D-printed and individually replaceable) and it doesn’t need a glove as a cover. Arneri and Sooryanarain were adamant on this. Gloves are stiff, cause energy losses, limit movability and have to be changed regularly. So, gloves should come off. Hence the name: ProDG for Prosthetics Delft Gloveless.

Gel cushion
Gel cushion

Gel cushion


Ultrasound is a fantastic and harmless imaging tool, but it does have its restrictions. Imaging of hand and feet for example is hardly possible because of two problems: the conducting gel doesn’t close the gap between skin and transducer and the closest focus is too deep under the skin. The SURFER that Nienke van Driel (on photo) and Luc de Goeij developed solves both problems with an elegant add-on. It consists of a plastic cover for the ultrasound probe with a gel pack underneath. The gel pack follows the body’s contours and eliminates air gaps, while at the same time increasing the distance to compensate for the system’s inherent farsightedness.

Restoring fertility
Restoring fertility

Restoring fertility


Maryse Karsten (photo) and Joaquin Villamar are still waiting for their prototype to be finished by Demo. Their manipulator for minimal invasive surgery was probably one of the most complicated tools. It has a role in ovarian tissue banking, a procedure offered to young women about to undergo cancer therapy. These patients can have one ovary taken out and banked during the cancer therapy. Afterwards, slices of the stored ovary are inserted into the remaining but less fertile one. This procedure cannot yet be performed by keyhole surgery, but the newly developed minimal invasive ovary manipulator (MIOM) should allow for this. With one hand only, the surgeon can get a grip on the ovary and make incisions for the autotransplantation.

Let’s get this straight
Let’s get this straight

Let’s get this straight


The largest medical tool was developed by Yoeri Stigterman and Koen van de Poll (photo). It’s an instrument that allows orthopaedic surgeons to make more precise measurements for heel corrections. In some patients the heel bone (calcaneus) is not in line with the shin bone (tibia), which results in walking difficulties. Surgical corrections are often made on the basis of educated guesswork, which may lead to reoperations in case the correction was too large or too small. The new tool called CalFocus can measure the angle between the bones within one degree. The size of the instrument contributes to the high precision because of the increased distance between the measuring points.

Coming to grips
Coming to grips

Coming to grips


Patients with rheumatoid arthritis suffer from pain in their hand joints, often in conjunction with deformations. The result is that they’re experiencing trouble in picking up ordinary things like a sheet of paper, a pen or a cup. Students Maaike de Jong and Bram Koenen (photo) developed an extension to the brace that these patients often wear anyways. The white 3D-printed device easily clips and releases things thanks to the bi-stable mechanism. The lightweight and easy to handle gripper (called Active Aid Brace) could replace a number of single-task devices such as currently used.


The course Medical Device Prototyping is taught by Dr. John van den Dobbelsteen and Dr. Gabrielle Tuijthof at the department of Biomechanical Engineering of the 3mE faculty.

 

Editor Redactie

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