Project 2 was centred on developing a solution for a patient suffering from hip pain and in need of hip replacement surgery, which adheres to all the patient's primary objectives and restrictions. Numerous design iterations were made, which are further expressed in the Design Process section below. The Final Prototype my colleagues came up with is shown below.
<aside> 💡 Patient Summary: At the moment, Nyota Uhura is working at McMaster University as an assistant professor. She used to have a highly active lifestyle, participating in sports and standing for long periods of time when attending lectures. She has been experiencing chronic stiffness in the groin and the thighs, as well as a loss of appetite, significant soreness in her feet and hip, and little nodules on her toes. We were able to diagnose her with rheumatoid arthritis with the assistance of medical professionals. As a result of her rheumatoid arthritis, Nyota Uhura has to have her hip replaced with a device that both slows the progression of the joints degeneration and takes into account her allergy to metal. This should return her to the original level of comfort and busy lifestyle that she had before.
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For the second time this year, I got to work as a team to solve an issue and see our ideas be implemented. As the project commenced, I was reminded that a blanket acceptance of any one notion would not be sufficient to create this implant for. Only a subset of the suggestions made by everybody involved would suffice. We needed to work as a team, testing our strengths and weaknesses, to yield the best design for our patient. My varsity basketball coach had total knee surgery and a hip replacement when he coached me, so I was really driven to find a solution to an issue that affects millions of people. I knew he was in pain while teaching us, but I had no idea how rewarding it would be to find a solution to a problem like his.
Our presentation revealed the following key facts about our design:
Our ribbed stem design was successful in providing a stable hold on the implant and addressing the issues with traditional hook designs. The groves in the acetabular cup and the liner also contributed to the success of our design by allowing for secure anchoring and low friction rotation. Our design met Nyota Uhura's objectives and constraints and laid the foundation for further research on hip replacements for physically active patients.
