AUA and Harvard Medical School Collaborate in Joint Program

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The project of the “Fabrication of Experimental Batch of Short Intramedullary (IM) Nails and Their Mechanical Testing” at Harvard Medical School was the continuation and part of the collaborative effort between the American University of Armenia (AUA) and Harvard Medical School (HMS). The project is devoted to the development and implementation of a simplified intramedullary (IM) nail system – affordable for the local customer and compatible in the regional market.

Sargis Zeytunyan, Program Chair of IESM Program and Director of CAD/CAM Laboratory at AUA, has been engaged in the roots of the project for two years. He was also involved in student supervision and preparation of the final design and production drawings.

Within the scope of this project, important scientific innovations may result in the development of medicine and bring solutions to several long-waited issues in the regional market. The foremost purpose of the project is to create a product affordable for the local customer and compatible in the regional market.

Levon Stepanyan, a senior student of AUA’s Computer Science program, took part in project activities and delivered the product prototypes to the HMS at Harvard University. Here, he participated in product testing and gathered feedback on the engineering design and solutions. The prototypes were then taken to BIDMC Nazarian Lab for Mechanical testing and review. A total of eight samples were produced – including one set of handles, guides (all the needed tools and guides for performing surgery), etc.

The team has also planned two more stages of future testing: Finite Element Analysis and Mechanical Cadaveric testing, which will be the topic of Levon’s Capstone for the 2017 spring semester.