The co-supervised PhD-project of Jack Wilkie is a collaboration between the BIROMED-Lab at the University of Basel and Prof. Dr. Knut Möller's Institute of Technical Medicine at Hochschule Furtwangen University.

The project is developing a smart bone screwdriver to automatically determine and implement an appropriate torque limit based on intra-operative data. This project uses model-based methods to first identify the strength of the bone using data from instrumentation in the screwdriver (e.g. measuring rotation and torque), and then uses this strength and a-priori information about the screw type to determine the optimal torque. The project focuses on the development and testing of the models, and implementing them in a prototype to test the feasibility of the whole system. The project has the potential to reduce cases of under- and over-torqueing in clinical settings, and improve patient outcomes.

                       https://item.hs-furtwangen.de/projects/bone-screw-torque-optimisation/

Project leader: Jack Wilkie