Healthcare

"Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live." - Jim Rohn
True, that health is of prime importance in one's life and one leaves no stone unturned in enhancing one's well-being and utilizing current technologies in maintaining or enhancing the quality of life. With advent of hydroxyapatite coated hip implants (Fig. 1) that advance the lifetime, a dramatic increase in confidence and comfort can be observed in life of patients that have undergone the surgery. Further, advancements in acetabular cup liner (Fig. 2) that articulates with the femoral head can not be negated. It is essential to advance the science in order to improve the quality of material, and thus, engineer a specialty and targeted multifunctional implant.
It becomes essential to quantify the in vitro cellular adhesion on the engineered materials (Fig. 3, and 4). Further, a required functional gradation (both biological and mechanical) can be utilized (Fig. 5) in providing specific functional properties to the implant material. Further, the choice of materials, such as using ZnO (Fig. 6) or silver nanoparticles render bactericidal property to the implant materials that provides relief to patients that have undergone surgery.
Moreover, the stents are used (Fig. 7) to open up blood blockage through a damaged artery, and can be coated with anticoagulating and self-releasing agents to help regulating blood flow. From surgical knives to the imaging (bones, MRI, Ultrasound, CAT scans, etc.) or manipulating the surgery through intervention of materials (and their tissue interaction) inherently creates variety of challenges in the field of health care. Ideas are welcome in this interdisciplinary field of engineering.