The OT-World in Leipzig is considered the world's leading trade fair for rehabilitation and medical aids. Prof. Dr. Jörg Subke has been presenting research projects and study opportunities at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen ( THM ) there for 20 years - and always brings ideas back to Gießen .

The professor at the Gießen Department of Life Science Engineering (LSE) leads the bachelor's degree programme in “Biomedical Engineering” (BMT), in which mediators between medicine and technology are trained. This year, orthoses and prostheses were the focus of the THM presence. “Due to two major wars, the need for adequate care for disabled people has increased,” explains the professor.

Subke is conducting research here with THM graduate Dr. Göran Fiedler, now Assistant Professor for the Master of Science in Prosthetics and Orthotics at the University of Pittsburgh in the USA. They want to improve the quality of life for war veterans. “An amputation creates excess tension in the healthy half of the body,” describes Prof. Subke and asks the research question: “How can you compensate for this?” Crutches cannot do this, and conventional prostheses can only do so to a limited extent. The transatlantic research project therefore focuses on computer-aided, individualized custom-made production. “War veterans are often relatively young. They need prostheses that protect them from consequential damage in the long term,” explains Prof. Jörg Subke. The camera-supported analysis of defined movement tasks helps with the individual adjustment of the prosthesis, and long-term monitoring of the patient prevents the “looping in” of posture errors, gentle movements and excess tension.

Appropriate know-how for this research is already imparted in the bachelor's degree programme. BMT students learn basic medical knowledge and skills from mechanical engineering and computer science. Techniques such as 3D printing and rapid prototyping are also part of the curriculum and allow medical technology to be individualized to suit patients.

Such individual care is also intended to enable another research project that Subke presented with students Marie Heuer and Benedikt Schneider at OT-World. It serves to alleviate the “common disease” of osteoarthritis. Camera-supported movement analyzes and the localization of the pain-causing cracks in the knee joint using sound emission analysis allow the construction of precisely tailored insoles. With their help, the movement of the knee joint can be guided around the damage and thus avoid it. Pain is significantly reduced. Prof. Subke miniaturized the underlying technology, it was validated in a master's thesis, and it is being clinically tested in clinical studies with Fulda University and the Bad Endbach rehabilitation center - technology from everyday research for a higher standard of living and, in the best sense of the word, "modern aid supply", as the OT-World is committed to.