Putting South Australia on the map for musculoskeletal research

Other projects are more theoretical. Greg—with the use of John’s lab—is currently dissecting the end of the radius bone to identify exactly where the ligaments and tendons are, and thus where an implanted plate should sit. It may seem strange, but there is still so much we don’t know about the human body—including how our wrists work. Greg and John both hold high standards for themselves in academia and in industry practice. Their research is always innovative, high quality, rigorous and scientific; they publish in high quality, peer reviewed journals and present at conferences around the world.

On the other side of the training space is an engineering hub that houses all manner of equipment, although the pride and joy is the Hexapod Robot. The unique robot sits in the centre of the room and allows users to reproduce the movements of joints in the body. The Hexapod is so precise it can test down to tiny 0.01 mm displacements. John controls it like a flight simulator, testing how joints and implants move. It’s hot commodity for companies wanting to test their implants; John is working with companies and researchers all over the world, from the USA to Sweden.    

The dream for Greg and John is developing their own implants. They have the skills, the knowledge (both medicine and engineering), the ideas, the facilities and the state-of-the-art technology to design, create and test new concepts. They have relationships with Flinders Medical Centre to undertake clinical trials. It’s simply a matter of pulling it all together. ‘One day Flinders University at Tonsley really could become the hub of musculoskeletal research in Australasia,’ Greg suggests, sharing a look with John. They both see it as a place where great innovation occurs, where young engineers, bio-mechanics and clinicians train and work in collaboration—just like them.

• The Flinders Surgical Lab is a state-of-the-art, 250 square metre, level 2 physical containment compliant (PC2) facility worth $2.1 million, facilitating an amazing collaboration of teaching, research and multidisciplinary work.
• The Surgical Lab can facilitate surgical training workshops for small or large groups of up to 40 people.
• The Surgical Lab is home to Flinders University’s Six Degree of Freedom Hexapod Robot, which provides accurate and realistic 3D loading of joints and implants under different loading conditions and movements—allowing the simulation of hundreds of complex movements.
• Flinders’ Hexapod Robot was awarded the 2012 Engineering Excellence South Australian Award for Innovation/Research and Development and also the highest accolade from Engineering Australia, the Malcolm Kinnaird Engineering Excellence Award. In 2016, the robot gained international recognition after receiving second-place in the National Instruments Engineering Impact Award (Industrial Machinery and Control category).
• The Surgical Lab is bringing medicine and engineering together to make a real difference for surgical outcomes.
• Development of the lab took four years. It involved extensive planning to create a world-class facility compliant with the state and national regulations.