COVER FEATURE
INGENIEUR
Innovation in Healthcare:
OsteoKnee™
By Ir. Dr Lai Khin Wee & Farshad Goldshan
Biomedical Engineering Department,
University of Malaya,
Dr Zulkarnain Bin Jaafar & Dr Goh Siew Li
Consultant, Faculty of Medicine,
University Malaya Medical Centre
O
steoarthritis (OA), the most common
form of arthritis in the elderly, is due to
become a major health burden as global
life expectancy increases. A published report has
shown a steady increment trend in the average
age of the Malaysian population from 1950 to
a predicted 2020 (Figure 1). The World Health
Organisation (WHO) estimates that 9.6% of men
and 18% of women aged over 60 years old suffer
from symptomatic OA. Not only will symptomatic
OA impose a greater demand on health care costs
for the individual, but it will also cause significant
functional impairment and reduce the quality of
life for those with the ailment. About 80% of them
will have limitations in mobility and 25% of them
will be unable to perform their day to day activities.
In all populations studied so far the prevalence of
knee OA is higher than other forms of OA; but it is
more marked in Asian populations and the most
common form of OA in Malaysia is knee OA.
Over the years, many high-tech strategies
have been developed to improve diagnoses and
treatment of OA (e.g. MRI, CT scans). However,
a patient-friendly solution for objective selfmonitoring of OA symptoms and progress is
yet to be seen on the market. Self-monitoring
provides an opportunity for at-risk individuals
to independently develop coping and mitigating
strategies for OA. If an individual is able to detect
or measure unfavourable changes in their joints
following a new physical routine, they will then
be able to assess the suitability of their activities
even before the onset of symptoms. This is a
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potentially effective strategy for the prevention
of OA, especially if the monitoring is safe to be
undertaken as often as is necessary by the
individuals themselves in the comfort of their own
homes.
Joint swelling and joint crepitus (crackling
sound) can precede joint pain and often go
unnoticed by individuals. That is to say, when
most people with OA have joint pain, they would
have had knee problems even before they realised
it. Hence, monitoring of knee swelling and/or
crepitus is likely to provide a simple and promising
solution to early detection of symptomatic OA.
Designing low cost, easy to use, non-invasive
and reliable tools for diagnosing and monitoring