Abstract
Accessibility and sustainability are crucial concepts to consider in the medical field. If a medicinal
practice is inaccessible to a group of people, it creates an unjust system where some people can be
treated, and others cannot. As areas of inaccessibility appear, they should be addressed
immediately to remove the inequality that is created. Sustainability is also important in medicine as
unsustainable practices create negative health effects, undermining the goal of the medical
industry. The technical portion of my project addresses the problems of accessibility, and the STS
research addresses how the medical field can become more sustainable.
For the technical aspect of my capstone, my project group and I designed and implemented a novel
leg rest onto the Sara Stedy. The Sara Stedy is a chair used to transport patients who have trouble
walking around the hospital. This device currently has a fixed leg rest that spans the entire length of
the chair, and this can be a problem for patients using a knee brace, as they are unable to bend at
the knee, and the leg rest inhibits them from sticking their leg out comfortably. Currently, medical
workers resort to positioning the leg outside of the chair, and this increases discomfort in the
patient and the chance of injury. We successfully designed and attached two leg rests that can
rotate ninety degrees outward, allowing patients to comfortably put their leg out in front of them
instead of to the side.
In my STS research, I explored the role of sustainability in the medical field. To explore
sustainability, I researched the current incentives that drive sustainability and the materials used in
the prosthetic industry. One method of increasing sustainability is by using public policy to drive
innovation. Governments can impose taxes on businesses based on their emissions, forcing
companies to adopt cleaner practices and find better materials to reduce the tax they pay. The
second method is researching and selecting materials that have similar physical properties, but
different life cycle carbon costs, leading to the reduction of carbon emissions. These sustainability
efforts cannot commence in one step but should be broken up and built up slowly. This should start
in the prosthetics industry, specifically through material use in the devices. Switching from steel to
bamboo would reduce carbon emissions greatly.
These topics show the developments that can continually be made by current and future engineers.
There will not be a point where an industry is perfectly accessible to everyone and perfectly
sustainable. Therefore, developments must be made to approach these end goals. It is not possible
to completely change every manufacturing process overnight, so these changes would need to be
implemented sector by sector. I propose that the prosthetics industry is a good place for these
changes to start. Increasing the accessibility of these devices will offer care to people who normally
would not be able to have them, leading to better health outcomes globally. The medical industry
should also be the starting point for change, as it will increase global well-being by reducing the
amount of harmful gases in the atmosphere.
