Integrative Design of Biomedical products

Image of the conceptual solution, it includes 2 males, one white with brown hair and one black male. The white male is the patient, he has a cuff around his arm, cables running down to an electronics box that is connected to a foot pedal that the black male, the doctor is using. The doctor also uses an ultrasound machine that is on the left, he holds up the ultrasound probe on the shoulder of the patient.

The case we were assigned for the Integrative Design of Biomedical products course was about measuring shoulder laxity in clinical practice. Currently laxity is not measured with any golden standard methods. Therefore, the project aims to develop a device that allows for an objective and reliable measurement of laxity that can be used in clinical practice. A solution like this would have a broad impact by facilitating clinicians to give diagnoses based on more concrete evidence that correctly describes the situation of the presented condition so that patients get better-suited treatments, improving their quality of life, participation in society and decreasing healthcare’s economic burden produced by recurrent patients with unhealed conditions.

This design is made of a Velcro strap on the cuff  on the upper arm made from a nylon-based material. This material is easy to clean (washable) and when tightened with Velcro it won’t slip off the arm easily. To this cuff, cables are attached that run to a machine box with a DC motor inside. 

 

On the cable, a load cell is placed to measure the load that’s on the arm. This load is also displayed on a screen that’s on the patient’s cuff, the physician doing the exam can check if the appropriate load has been reached and see its relation to the displacement. The displacement is measured with an ultrasound machine , which is used during the gradual increase in load on the arm. The displacement can be measured by freezing the screen on the ultrasound machine and using the software already installed to measure the distance between the acromion and the humeral head in millimetres. The load on the arm of the patient can be controlled by the physician’s foot using a foot pedal leaving their arms free to use the ultrasound machine, one arm will be used to hold the probe to the shoulder of the patient and take pictures and measurements with the ultrasound machine with the other arm.