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 COLLABORATIVE MEDICAL DEVICE DESIGN INITIATIVE

HEALTHCARE, DESIGN & FUTURE MANUFACTURING

PROJECT DETAILS

OBJECTIVES

Building on existing relationships, this project developed research necessary for long-term collaborations between researchers, industry partners and community actors in the UK and India.

 

The project addressed the need for better community resilience, and local supply chains in healthcare, and illustrated this by collaboratively developing new design methods for devices used to correct facial deformity.

 

The objectives were to:

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  • Collaboratively-develop regionally-appropriate methods that will enable the provision of custom made devices used to correct facial deformity to a greater number of people in India, and to test the feasibility of the new approach.

  • Identify and prioritise new collaborative research projects to overcome the challenges identified.

  • Develop community, training and industry partnerships that will help to implement the research.

 

These objectives were achieved through a series of exchange visits, outreach programmes and project challenges from 2018 to 2020. 

ORGANISERS

The project was developed by Prof. Dominic Eggbeer and Prof. Divya Mehrotra in collaboration with Peter Evans, Dr Katie Beverley and other colleagues.

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The Indian team, led by Prof Mehrotra, has been involved in treating facial deformities for the last twenty years. In her position as Vice Dean at King George's Medical University, Lucknow, she used the project to extend the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery's vision to be outstanding globally for patient care, teaching and research.  

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The UK team, led by Prof. Eggbeer, has worked in the field of advanced design engineering technologies for healthcare since 1998. Dr Eggbeer is Head of Surgical & Prosthetic Design (SPD) at PDR, Cardiff Metropolitan University. Through collaboration, research undertaken by the SPD team focuses on understanding the needs of patients and NHS specialists, then developing new methods that improve patient outcomes or the efficiency of procedures.

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The project was also supported by the Maxillofacial Unit at Morriston Hospital. The Unit is an essential part of the Tertiary services for South and Mid Wales, providing Oral/ Maxillofacial, Orthodontic and Restorative services on a local and regional basis. The Maxillofacial Lab, led by Peter Evans, are UK pioneers in the application of computer technologies for craniofacial implants and prosthetic rehabilitation. They have worked closely with the research team at PDR, Cardiff Metropolitan University for over 12 years.

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Dr Katie Beverley led the projects ambition to develop circular economy-based systems into healthcare. Katie is PDR’s lead on the circular economy and all things sustainable. Since joining Ecodesign Centre in 2014, she has supported government, public sector and private companies to improve environmental practices through improved product, service and systems design. Katie’s portfolio includes the development of circular business models in the automotive, furniture and cosmetics sectors, product improvements in the sports and leisure and automotive industries and future systems proposals for new printed electronics and energy systems.

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Together, the team ensured the solutions developed during the project are long-term sustainable and affordable. 

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FUNDING

The funding allowed exchange visits, outreach activities and development of research that is essential to co-develop the application of advanced design engineering technologies that are appropriate to the Indian context.

KEEP UP TO DATE

This blog section will be used to post findings from the project and encourage a network of international collaboration. The ambition is to launch new research projects that address the issues raised during the exchange visits.

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