
When surgeons and engineering students join forces - rsingla
http://pulse.embs.org/september-2015/rethinking-education/
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irl_zebra
This is really amazing. They first looked into what the problem was (lack of
proper-length screws for surgical procedures) and checked to see what caused
it. It turned out that the problem wasn't a lack of screws in general, there
was actually a surplus of screws shipped from developed countries. The problem
was inventory management and knowing what size screws needed to be stocked at
any given time, because there was no inventory feedback loop. Inventory
management and a feedback loop are reasons why we don't have the need for on-
site screw cutters in the developed world.

The solution was to engineer portable, high-quality screw cutters to cut-to-
length screws they had on hand.

Would another (maybe better/easier/less complex/quicker?) way to solve this
problem be to use software/internet to create the necessary feedback loop to
enable proper inventory management so that they had the proper screws on hand
versus having to cut down long screws?

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lucian1900
The solution they came up with is more flexible, so they could end up with
simpler (and cheaper) sourcing and inventory management overall by ordering
fewer screw lengths in the first place.

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etrautmann
I'd like to see more examples. It seems clear that there's lots of low hanging
fruit with respect to engineering solutions for medical devices, surgical
tools, procedures, etc. This was one cool application, but there must be other
student teams from this program?

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graeham
[http://arbutusmedical.ca/](http://arbutusmedical.ca/) is another example.

Its only been going 3-4 years with ~10 students per year, so some of the ideas
are still developing. And more so, I think we'll see alumni of the program do
great things in the coming years.

I'd argue that hardware is more challenging for younger founders, and medical
device more so - the regulatory, funding, and access to users is hard. What
makes this program so good is it makes user access easy, and coaches students
through 'translating' between engineering language and surgeon.

I was at UBC in the Biomedical Program the year before EiS started. Its a very
strong program in medical device design, especially by including not just the
engineering science, but life sciences, regulatory environment, and
commercialization considerations.

~~~
etrautmann
Very cool example. Clear and compelling use case, well-engineered simple
solution, obvious market and benefit to the world.

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scottchurchley
I had Tony Hodgson (who runs the BMEG program) as my senior design project
supervisor last year - he's an excellent instructor in engineering
(particularly biomedical) design.

I'd expect big things from the engineers coming out of this program as a
result.

