The human hand: biomechanical masterpiece or nightmare? Seminar

Abstract: Millions of people in the UK suffer from a debilitating loss of manual dexterity, which has a dramatic effect on quality of life. Biomechanical factors play a role in the progression and treatment of the conditions that cause these challenges. However, the complexity of the hand and wrist means that our understanding of these factors dramatically lags behind our understanding of the larger joints in the human body. My research group seeks to overcome this stark deficit in insight through a series of collaborations with therapists and clinicians. Our research strategy includes the creation of in vitro, in vivo and in silico tools and techniques to specifically examine the joints of the hand and wrist, allowing us to investigate their function and inter-dependency. We are quantifying the effects of surgical treatments by using repeated measures study designs in our joint motion simulator to examine changes in kinematics and kinetics that result from pathology and repair. We are validating how therapists can reliably quantify joint motion in the clinic with the objective of creating patient-specific splints for early mobilisation following surgery. We are also examining how statistical approaches may be used to quantify variation in joint shape within the population and how this may link to the development of osteoarthritis.