Design and Fabrication of Orthopedic Short Intramedullary Nail System: Collaborative Project with Harvard Medical School

Orthopedic and trauma care in Armenia encounter various challenges. Hardware and equipment are at the core of patient care in these fields, as surgeons need them to help patients and to increase their work efficiency to become proficient in delivery of care. Unfortunately, the high cost and limited availability of orthopedic and trauma hardware adversely affect both of these components in Armenia.

The first initiative has been the modified intramedullary nail, a mainstay of trauma care for elderly bone fractures. They have been able to design a system that reduces the complication of the surgical kit, to reduce cost, inventory and streamline care delivery. Over the past two years, they have undertaken the design and revision work for this IM nail in collaboration with students at AUA, where they have been able to implement the first prototype.

Sargis Zeytunyan is the Program Chair of Industrial Engineering and Systems Management (IESM) program at the Zaven & Sonia Akian College of Science and Engineering at the American University of Armenia. He has Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from American University of Armenia. Sargis has developed and run the CAD/CAM laboratory, curriculum and research project activities for nearly two decades at AUA.

Levon Stepanyan is a senior student at AUA, majoring in Computer Science. He has joined the Intramedullary Short Nail System project in September of 2016. Levon currently works as a lead CAD/CAM engineer at Lignea Furniture. His capstone project is the continuation of the short intramedullary nail design projects implemented jointly by AUA and HMS.