We are delighted to invite you to our webinar where Dr Jinghua Tang and Professor Liudi Jiang from Southampton University will present and discuss the outcome of the project. The high growth rate of children means that children who have lower limb loss also require prosthetics that can match their rate of growth. This creates a significant problem as it means that a “new” socket might be needed very often, just like children go through many pairs of school shoes due to growth spurts. Once a prosthetic socket is fitted to a child, it may soon be too small, and if left unaddressed may lead to skeletal development problems. The project aimed to develop a proof of concept system called SIMS (Socket Interface Monitoring System), with a view to help assess socket fit levels and timely identify the need for socket adjustments. SIMS consists in-socket sensors and a smartphone app. The aim is to demonstrate the proof of concept which could be potentially applied to help ensure children always have good fitting and comfortable prosthesis so that they can participate fully in normal lives and most importantly have fun! This short (9-month) project was funded by the Department of Health/the Starworks proof of concept funding. The Starworks Innovation Project is a young people’s prosthetics research collaboration, which brings children and their families together with key opinion leaders from the NHS, Industry, Clinical Academia and leading National Research Centres with capabilities in child prosthetics.
Dr. Jinghua Tang is a Postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Liudi Jiang’s research group. Jinghua has many years research experience in the areas of sensors and biomechanics at the stump/socket interface for lower limb amputees. Jinghua won the Advancing Technology Prize in ISPO World Congress 2017 and IMechE Healthcare Technology Early Career Award (DePuy Prize for best medical engineering Postgraduate project ) in 2019.
Prof. Liudi Jiang is a Professor of Materials and Electromechanical Systems, the University of Southampton. She is widely recognised for her research in healthcare technologies and research, especially those involving body/device interfaces. Research areas include stump/socket interface for limb amputees, haptic feedback, neuro-prosthetics, diabetic foot insoles, body orthosis etc. Her research group works with many stakeholder groups and closely involves families, amputees, clinicians and industries. She is a Fellow of IET and a member of the Executive committee for ISPO-UK.
To join the webinar please go to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GtZ7h6dmSaSytfit83Pc5w