Foxpat Surgical Trainer by Nitin Gurram Wins the Silver A' Design Award in Education, Teaching Aid and Training Content Design

Nitin Gurram honored for education, teaching aid and training content design by the international grand jury of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 22, 2020 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Education, Teaching Aid and Training Content Design category for Foxpat Surgical Trainer by Nitin Gurram, designed for Zimmer Biomet. The result belongs to the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The Silver A' Design Award Explained

The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.

Regarding Foxpat Surgical Trainer

Foxpat is a reusable training simulator for knee replacement surgery. The device is a physical model of a patient knee, fitted with sensors that give feedback on operating performance. Polyurethane bones and a silicone soft tissue cover are held by an aluminium frame, so surgeons can practise with the same tools used in the operating room, without an assistant to hold the knee. A wireless surgical mallet records the impact force and shows the result on an LED scale. Foxpat allows novice surgeons to learn from mistakes without harming a patient.

About Nitin Gurram

As an innovator, Nitin took up the challenge of matching evolution of people with revolution of design and technology. With a perfect blend of Engineering and Design, he is motivated towards developing meaningful products to improve the health and lifestyle of people. Nitin graduated with masters in Industrial Design from The Netherlands. He studied Mechanical Engineering in India before moving to The Netherlands. He has a flair for ideas and aptitude with each stage of the process that brings a design to life. His design process takes a user-centered approach following Delft Design methods.

Award Record

Nitin Gurram is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.

About the A' Education, Teaching Aid and Training Content Design Award

The A' Education Design Award is an international competition recognizing good education products and projects by leading designers and brands worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to education designers, teaching aid designers, training content creators and curriculum developers from all countries. Typical entries include textbooks, e-learning platforms, educational games, training manuals, instructional videos and interactive whiteboards. The awarded education designs are published at https://desingers.org/design-category/education

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://desingers.org/90099
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/90099
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!90099
Laureate Profile: https://desingers.org/d/255944
Further Information from the Laureate: http://bit.ly/FoxpatOPKR

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Foxpat Surgical Trainer
Function: Surgical Trainer
Category: Education, Teaching Aid and Training Content Design
Discipline: Service Design
Industry: Education
Colors: Black, Gray, Light Slate Gray, Dark Gray and Silver
Images: 5
Client: Zimmer Biomet

The Recognition

Laureate: Nitin Gurram
Country: Netherlands
Recognition: Silver A' Design Award
Edition: 2019 - 2020
Design ID: #90099

Credits

Image Credits: Image #1, Image #2, Image #3 and; Keyshot Renders, Nitin Gurram, 2020.; Photographer and model Nitin Gurram, Foxpat photoshoot, 2020. Video Credits: Zimmer Biomet, TU Delft, Oxford Knee Group

Design Details

Unique Properties: Foxpat is a reusable training simulator for knee replacement surgery. Unlike the existing digital simulators, Foxpat is a physical simulation of a patient knee integrated with sensors to feedback on operational performance. The learning platform incorporates all the four stages of Kolb's experiential learning cycle; feel, observe, learn and experiment. The surgeons can use actual tools that are used in the operating room to practice independently without needing an assistant to hold the knee.
Inspiration: Research shows that it takes about 25 surgeries for novice surgeons to be proficient at knee replacement surgery(Qidong et al., Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research, 9:81). So designing efficient and ergonomic surgical tools is not just enough, but an excellent learning platform is crucial. This idea has led to developing a reusable surgical trainer where surgeons are allowed to make mistakes without harming a patient and gain surgical skills.
Research: The project was a graduation thesis took place with collaboration between Zimmer Biomet and Delft University of Technology. Oxford Partial Knee Replacement is one of the most popular Knee Replacement techniques from Zimmer Biomet. The research took place in two hospitals in Oxford, where the surgical technique was invented. The outcome of this project was expected to support Oxford training course that takes place across the world to train the novice surgeons on the surgical techniques.
Challenge: Orthopedics surgeries involve invasive processes like cutting, milling, and hammering. Making a realistic training model simulating the ergonomics of an actual operation is quite complicated. Secondly, there is not any standardized validation procedure to feedback the surgeons. Several studies have suggested that the hammer impact is a crucial element for positive results. So the impact force is recoded through a wireless surgical mallet to feedback the user on an LED impact scale.
Realization and Technology: The product consists of polyurethane(PU) bones, 3D scanned knee anatomy, aluminium structural frame and a wireless surgical mallet. The lower leg is made up of ABS plastic, and the upper knee joint is vacuum cast with silicone of shore hardness 0030. The PU bones are vacuum casted for 320gm/cc density to simulate a realistic bone density. The low production volume of 50 pieces per year, allows producing most of the plastic and aluminium parts through CNC milling.
Operation and Interaction: As the product is used for training the novice surgeons, the training sessions take place in a conference hall or a hospital. A training support team that organizes the training or a local technician in the hospital will set up the device. Firstly, the metal frame is clamped down to a suitable table. Secondly, a new pair of Polyurethane bones are inserted into the device and clamped. Lastly, the silicon soft tissue is wrapped around the bones and locked with a Velcro strap.
Project Duration and Location: The project started in March 2019 in Delft, The Netherlands and finished in August 2019, and was exhibited at Innovation for Health - Design Expo in Rotterdam in February 2020.
Specifications: Width 900 mm x Depth 600mm x Height 400mm.
Keywords: Arthroplasty, Knee Replacement, Medical Training, Surgical simulator, Impact hammer