Lauren Swain
PhD Student, Cardiff University
University medical engineering research opportunities are supporting the development of surgical and treatment techniques that can lead to better outcomes for patients.
Cardiff University student Lauren Swain is aiming to make a major difference to millions of people with knee problems. After completing her medical engineering course, she pursued a PhD, where her research uses medical imaging to investigate how the knees’ bones move. It aims to create models to learn about various conditions and help improve patient outcomes.
Medical engineering research
Swain, 24, says: “I was looking at different engineering options for university — both my grandfathers were engineers, and my mum is a scientist. The one that really jumped out at me was medical engineering because I wanted a useful application for my engineering skills and felt that I could really help people.”
With around a year to go with her PhD, her research aims to understand how the healthy knee moves and how that changes with injury, disease (such as osteoarthritis) or after surgery.
“The idea is to evaluate different surgical options and treatments, seeing if we can improve the eventual outcomes for people suffering from knee injury and disease,” she explains. In evaluating new treatments and surgical approaches, her work feeds detailed information back to medical professionals to help improve techniques, slow down degeneration and elongate people’s ‘healthy knee lifespan.’
There are opportunities to work with academics and
collaborate with industry, surgeons and NHS projects.
University facilities and opportunities
She chose the Cardiff University medical engineering course as it was well-established and offers modern lab facilities and equipment, including access to a custom biplane video X-ray system based in the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Research Facility in the School of Engineering. It is one of a handful worldwide and the only one like it in the UK, and it can accurately assess the motion of the bones.
Moreover, there are opportunities to work with academics and collaborate with industry, surgeons and NHS projects. Swain also attends the university’s various STEM events and is involved in school outreach activities.
Taking the STEM route
Advice she would give to others, particularly women, considering a STEM course and career is to pick something they are interested in. “Within STEM, there are so many avenues you can go down, but avoid thinking it is not for you just because you haven’t seen people like you do it,” concludes Swain.
