CARTIS talks to…. Steffan Daniel

Steffan Daniel, who is based at the National Centre for Product Design and Development Research at Cardiff Metropolitan University, is currently in his final year of a 3 year Ph.D. project focusing on using Computer Aided Design techniques within the field of Maxillofacial prosthetics. He joined the CARTIS team at the beginning of his studies, we caught up with him to find out how his research has been going.

How did you get involved in this specialised field?  

In 2009 I studied for an MSc in Advanced Product Design at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff and had taken on a series of work placements in product design. My interests lay in using design and engineering for positive impact and found myself interested in how design techniques and research could be used in the medical field. From this, I discovered the Medical Applications Group at The National Centre for Product Design and Research where I became very intrigued by some of the research being conducted there, in applying digital design techniques to facial reconstruction and prosthetics.

Give me some background information on your research.  

Computer Aided Design technologies are now a well established means of designing, prototyping and manufacturing products in all different kinds of industries. The development and adoption of these advanced technologies is growing at an increased rate in the medical device industry and there has been work and research conducted in patient-specific medical devices. Examples include medical modelling, surgical cutting guides, custom implants, burns masks, tissue scaffolds and facial prostheses.  There is significant scope for further research in these areas and particularly in the field of maxillofacial prosthetics.

Extra-oral maxillofacial prosthetics tends to categorise itself between dental technology and prosthetics where many design techniques are adopted from both fields but there are limited standards controlling the levels of quality and accuracy in the design process. This is especially true with regards to mechanisms that retain facial prostheses.  There is opportunity here to incorporate Computer Aided Design technologies into the process of designing and creating prosthesis retention systems and create a comparable process to the traditional methods. This is an area of research that has been neglected in many published case studies, and so this is where my research comes in.

What exactly does your Ph.D. focus on then? 

My research is firstly about evaluating the design and manufacturing process of prosthesis retention mechanisms. A series of interviews with Maxillofacial Prosthetists were conducted and following this a survey for prosthetists was sent out with the IMPT newsletter. The interviews and surveys focused on developing a design criteria for retention mechanisms and offered lots of data on the techniques used in clinical practice, difficulties involved in the process and the importance of various design features and stages in the process.

The second phase in the research has been to evaluate traditionally-made retention mechanisms in comparison to ones created using experimental Computer Aided Design techniques. This is about taking the traditional models as a benchmark in performance and evaluating if CAD technologies can match that benchmark performance. The outcome of this research is about proposing appropriate digital processes for integrating retention mechanism design and fabrication into the overall prosthesis process.  This may be using a combination of surface scanning techniques, CAD software and Rapid Prototyping processes.

What are the next stages in your research?

2012 will mainly be about writing up the research so far, but some of the studies are still in progress. I would like to learn more about the application of this research to the clinical environment.

What have been the highlights during your study?

I was fortunate to be flown over to Freiburg, Germany in 2011 to present some of my research at the 4^th International Conference in Advanced Digital Technology in Head and Neck Reconstruction. This was undoubtedly a valuable experience and to share my research with a variety of prosthetists, surgeons and technologists at an international level was fantastic. These events enable researchers to create a wider circle of professional contacts and offer opportunities to discuss potential collaborative future projects. I was also able to get involved with some Workshops on Digital Technologies in Maxillofacial Prosthetics. This was a good chance to learn how new techniques and knowledge could be shared between technologists and clinicians.

A major benefit of researching an area within the medical technology field is that there are lots of opportunities to collaborate with industry or other academic organisations. My PhD studies have provided me with chances to work with companies like Renishaw – who have provided access to some high quality, advanced measurement machines for some of my research. It gives you a taste of working with an industrial partner and establishes links with industrial contacts if you wish to work in industry post-Ph.D.

The PhD has given me opportunities to work with clinicians during my studies, which is a key factor in developing medical devices and processes. Embarking on a Ph.D. has been a steep learning curve in working with experts in other disciplines. This is extremely important in today’s world, which promotes multi-disciplinary collaboration.

When do you hope to graduate?

I hope to submit my thesis at the end of this year, so hoping to graduate some time (!) in 2013. Wish me luck!