Experimental Research – Description

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To support our design philosophy, the development of innovative instruments or technology is predominantly started by in depth analysis of the challenge at hand. Literature very frequently does not provide the answers to our questions posed in this stage. Examples of such questions are: What is the prevalence of this complication or problem? What is the minimum required maneuvrability of an instrument? What is the force needed to cut cartilage?

Philosophy

Our philosophy is that by further analyzing the problem we get to the true core for which we need to develop a non-existing device that can offer the functionality to solve the problem. As data is absent, we perform our own research experiments to quantify our design criteria and to allow objective scientific evaluation of the performance of our prototypes. Furthermore, we aim to document the routine surgical workflow and performance in the operating room as base reference to evaluate the added value of our new solutions.

Focus on specific challengesER_coupe_g6l b12 safo

Challenges for experimental research are the following: measuring human tissue material and machining properties, measuring surgical workflow and status quo in the highly dynamic operating room, design of simulated environments that both sufficiently mimic the actual environment and allow highly conditioned experiments. Examples of our solutions are found in the pictures and associated scientific papers in the blog roll of this project.