Conseg - A medical Project

In 2012 the Research Division of the Hospital Klinikum Boberg in Hamburg asked me for a very specific product. The problem was very complex:

If a bone is broken in a very complicated way (or even bone cancer), the destructed piece has to be removed. They use a “fixator” which is a metallic frame (you might have seen this in some horror movies) to help the bone grow in the right direction to close the gap. That happens with multiple strings whose are connected to the fixator. Those strings have to be in a certain amount of tension. Doctors around the world need to ensure, that the tension is either too low or too strong. That means that patients have to go to the doctor multiple times a week (during their 3-6 months long therapy).

Klinikum Boberg is trying to automate this with a digital product which is called Conseg. It is connected to sensors on the strings to get the data of the tension and is visualizing this in an app – for the patient and for the doctor. The patient gets notified if anything is going wrong and that he need to check this at the hospital. The doctor can see the whole heeling process in multiple graphs. He can monitor peaks or other extraordinary things and has real data to he find the best decision for the therapy.

It was also a complex task regarding morality. We had to answer questions like “How far should a machine decide about a critical therapy?”. Right now, Klinikum Boberg is finalizing the prototype.