Feature
FROM UNDERGRADUATE TO SPINOUT IN SIX YEARS Dr Joshua Steer is revolutionising the way patients are fitted for prosthetic limbs – using biomechanical simulations software he developed during his PhD at Southampton.
Joshua has always had an interest in prosthetics and the science behind ‘the fit’. An undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering may not seem like the typical route into this area of biomedicine, but in fact ‘the fit’ was perfect here too. “Right from the start of my degree at the University of Southampton I became interested in how engineering can be used within healthcare to improve people’s quality of life, such as those who use prosthetic limbs,” explained Joshua. “As part of my
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final year of study, I worked as a Research Assistant on an internship for Statistical Shape Modelling of Residual Limb Shape for Transtibial Amputees, funded with a grant from FortisNet within the Institute for Life Sciences. It involved researching how to make prostheses fit better by scanning plaster casts of limbs from patients at a clinic in Portsmouth, building a statistical model-based software tool and analysing the data to understand how prosthetic fit varied depending on limb shape.
