Designing an Affordable Distal Radius Fracture Reduction Simulator for Medical Training; The Effect of Crash-Test Dummy Design on Automobile Accident Outcomes for Female Drivers and Passengers

In 2001, more than 640,000 people in the United States suffered a distal radius fracture. This fracture occurs in the radius near the wrist and must be set back into place by an orthopedist in a process called a closed reduction. Essentially, this is when the doctor “unlocks” the fractured piece of bone from its displaced position and pulls it back into the correct location before splinting. Currently, the way that medical students learn to perform this procedure is on live patients under the supervision of a doctor. This can be stressful for both the patient and the medical student, as this procedure can be difficult to describe how to carry out without being able to feel it. This is why we sought to create an affordable, replicable simulator for medical students to learn on before attempting a reduction on real patients. Some simulators exist, but are generally quite expensive, costing several thousand dollars. Cheaper options are much less accurate than the expensive ones, so we wanted to create one that was both affordable and accurate.

After our initial research, we began the prototyping phase. We decided that most of our design would be 3-D printed, as that was an affordable and easily replicable method. We found an online file of the radius and ulna and adapted it for use in our design, adding a hand portion and a base with the 3-D printer. The final design consists of the 3-D printed base that can be clamped to a table, a 3-D printed ulna and radius with a fractured portion at the top, and a 3-D printed “hand” without fingers. The “tendons” are made of elastic and can be tightened with guitar tuners, and the hand is secured to the bones using zip ties. Finally, the outside has a silicone “skin” that covers the entire device and is meant to feel like flesh. Our final design met the affordability and easily replicable goals, and because we consulted with an orthopedist in the testing phase, we feel confident saying that it is also accurate to what a wrist reduction feels like.

For the STS portion of my portfolio, my focus was on the importance of female crash test dummies. Currently, the only female crash test dummies that exist are quite small, meant to represent the 5th percentile of women. However, they are simply scaled-down versions of the male dummies and therefore do not account for differences in anatomy between females and males. Additionally, they are not as widely used as male dummies – they are not required to be used in most places, and the NHTSA never places their female dummies in the driver’s seat during crash testing. This disparity is important because women are significantly more likely to be injured in crashes of similar severity than men are. In my STS research paper, I argue that we are long overdue for an accurate 50th percentile female dummy to reduce the gap between women and men in the field of automobile safety. I examined this issue through the lens of the Social Construction of Technology theory (SCOT), to determine how societal values have led to certain social groups being valued more than others in this field.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Technical Advisor: Jason Forman
STS Advisor: Karina Rider
Technical Team Members: Natalie Bretton, Ryan DeLoach, Lauren Elliff, Brian Garmer, Greer Matthias, John Murphy, Katya Napolitano, Ethan Norris