New grant aimed at improving pediatric scoliosis treatment tech

Dr Sinduja Suresh has received an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship grant of $160,000 toward the project, New design-and-manufacture pipeline improving conservative treatment for pediatric scoliosis.

From QUT’s School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Suresh is an early career researcher in the School’s Biomechanics and Spine Research Group and Center for Biomedical Technologies.

Suresh said the project would develop a novel, state-of-the-art, digital platform for the automated design of spine braces to improve conservative treatment for children with scoliosis with industry partner, Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service.

“Scoliosis is the most common spine deformity in children and can dramatically reduce quality-of-life if left untreated,” said Suresh.

“Before resorting to major invasive surgery, timely and effective conservative treatment with spinal orthotic devices, like externally worn spine braces, is critical for patients to slow the progression of deformity and to improve their function.”

Suresh said the proposed automated design workflow was aimed at increasing an orthotist’s efficiency and reducing the manual work required for the design and manufacture of custom braces.

“Braces are traditionally made by thermoforming a plastic sheet over a plaster-cast of a patient’s body,” said Suresh.

“The casting process is time-consuming, labor intensive and stressful for children, especially for those with behavioral or communication difficulties.

“In addition, it can take up to two months to receive a brace – a child may outgrow their brace or their deformity may progress by the time they receive it.”

Suresh said that computer-aided 3D automation pipelines can greatly increase efficiency in “custom design and enable the integration of automated manufacturing methods such as 3D printing.”

“However, this field is still new, with development required in many steps of the automation pipeline,” said Suresh.

“My research into streamlining the brace fabrication workflow with automation will lead the way for further enhancements in the creation of custom orthotic devices.”

QUT Biomechanics and Spine Research Group director associate professor, Paige Little and clinical collaborators at the Queensland Children’s Hospital Spine Clinic have been developing new technology for digital orthotics and additive manufacturing of spinal orthotic supports to assist children with scoliosis since 2020.

“The challenge has been firstly to develop a user-friendly digital workflow to design the brace, but we also have been waiting for additive manufacturing technology to reach a point where full-length spinal torso braces could be manufactured economically,” said Little.

Professor Little said Suresh had leveraged her expertise in digital sculpting and 3D simulation to continue this development to provide a successful digital pipeline that would have significant impact to increase efficiency in orthotic service delivery.

“Partnering this digital workflow with her skills in advanced manufacture of the orthotics will have enormous potential to reduce the time and cost associated with spinal orthotic provision,” said Little.