Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, director and cofounder of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery in London, wants to see safe, effective, accessible technologies created to benefit people worldwide
Professor Guang-Zhong Yang is concerned with the future of healthcare. As director and co-founder of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery in London, and deputy chairman of the Institute of Global Health Innovation, he is engaged in both designing new technologies to meet the challenges faced by healthcare systems, and in making them accessible to users around the world.
Yang focuses primarily on three research areas: imaging, sensing and robotics. He is a founder of Sensixa, a company developing a miniaturised wireless sensing device that can monitor physical activity. Among its innovations is a tiny sensor worn behind the ear that tracks real-time information related to posture, gait and balance. Dubbed the e-AR, it has been used both with elite athletes - where clues from the body are used to enhance their performance - and to remotely monitor postoperative recovery in patients. If the gait of a patient changes after a knee replacement, explains Yang, the award-winning sensor will pick this up.
"The human skeleton is a very good conductor of both high-frequency and low-frequency waves," he said in an interview with Tech Talks Central. "If you have an injury to your ankle or knee, we'll be able to pick that up from the sensor."
Such devices are useful not only in developed countries, with soaring elderly populations, but in poorer economies where access to healthcare services is patchy, and remote monitoring could go some way to filling the gap.
"State-of-the-art technology does not have to be expensive, and innovation should not be just for the west," Yang said. "Our challenge is [to] develop safe, effective, accessible technologies that can benefit people worldwide."
It is just one of myriad uses of sensors in healthcare. In his role with the Hamlyn Centre, Yang has also explored implanting sensors in the body after surgery, to spot complications - such as infection of the surgical site - early.
"During surgery, you put in sutures, staples and stents. How about making those sensor-enabled?" he said. "This is the area we're currently working on; making implants able to detect inflammation, changes in pH, and also physical markers."
Surgery itself is also under the spotlight. Robot-assisted surgery has long been in play in the operating room, helping spur the rise of keyhole operations. Innovations such as the iSnake, a robotic, snake-like surgical device pioneered by Yang's team at the Hamlyn Centre to improve dexterity and accuracy, have the potential to make surgery safer, more consistent, and give a better outcome to the patient. It is Yang's view that the combined force of robotics and sensors is poised to reshape the way in which we prevent and treat diseases.
"You are really looking at the future of healthcare," he said. "Everything is driving towards early detection and the prevention of diseases. You can use verbal sensors to encourage people to live better lifestyles and mitigate some of the risks of behavioural and lifestyle-related diseases. You can rely on minimally invasive surgery to intervene at an early stage. And after surgery, you can leave sensors behind to monitor efficacy."
Professor Yang is a distinguished lecturer for IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, fellow of IEEE, IET, AIMBE, IAMBE, MICCAI, City of Guilds and a recipient of the Royal Society Research Merit Award and The Times Eureka 'Top 100' in British Science.
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