Team: Carina Hernandez, Kevin Luong, Camille Mercier, Joseph Nguyen, & Eric Wang

Client: Joe Forrester, M.D., M.Sc., Clinical Instructor, Surgery (General), Stanford Medical Center

About 17 million patients experience rib fractures every year, accounting for about 40% of US hospital trauma admissions.​ Rib fractures are typically treated with either “medical management” (painkillers), or by securing the fracture with anatomically contoured titanium plates to drastically reduce recovery time. Meanwhile, fractures too close to the spine are left untreated with no device on the market to treat these fractures.  

Our top unmet need is to develop a method to fix rib fractures in patients experiencing breaks close to the spine in order to facilitate a faster recovery.