An Interview with Biomedical Engineer Mark Miller
Written by Leah Hromalik
Have you ever wondered what goes into the making and managing of a joint replacement? It turns out that a lot of effort and collaboration goes into both the design and testing of these technologies. Both researchers and engineers work long hours to make sure they are fit for patient care and last as long as possible.
Mr. Miller, a senior support specialist at Upstate Orthopedics, spends many hours working with these transplants. This long process usually starts with a hypothesis about a replacement: what could be done to improve a design, what could he do to make it last longer? These questions then prompt the design of an experiment, which can range from testing the resilience of cadaver femur bones to designing and making a knee replacement for a rat.
Sometimes there are multiple experiments running in a single day. In fact, Mr. Miller said there may be three to seven experiments per day. Once experiments are finished, the team spends time analyzing data and writing papers. It is what is written in those papers that often changes the design of the replacements themselves.
Mr. Miller says this promise of better implants for patients is what inspired him to enter the field in the first place. He wants implants to last so patients won’t need replacements later in life. A longtime resident of Upstate New York, Mr. Miller pursued his MS in Biomedical Engineering at Syracuse University. He said that the work he does requires both science and math because the field is a mix of biology and engineering.
According to Mr. Miller, curiosity and inquisitiveness drive the questions that lead to better designs. A strong grounding in scientific and engineering principles makes those ideas work.
