I had the opportunity to pitch my project to senior biomedical engineering students at the University of Michigan. The students and I are working together, with M-PED support, to develop product specifications and create a functional prototype.
Sourced from Medical Design Technology (www.mdtmag.com):
"The MAGEC Spinal Growing Rod is a minimally-invasive treatment for children with early onset scoliosis. After the initial procedure to implant the rod, doctors use an external remote control outside of the body to lengthen the magnetically controlled rod as a child grows.
Traditional treatment uses rods that require surgeries about twice a year to manually lengthen the rod while a child is still growing. With the growing rod, the rod is magnetically controlled with the external remote control, so Stony Brook Medicine orthopedic surgeons can lengthen the rod in a non-invasive way during a child’s course of treatment."
Read more:
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2015/12/new-spinal-growing-rod-means-fewer-surgeries-kids-scoliosis
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