Photos in this story courtesy of Matthew Hickey
Matthew Hickey is taking strides (and helping others do so) with the help of the 2022 Friedman Award for Scholars in Health.
The Friedman Award for Scholars in Health supports learning and research opportunities for graduate students or medical residents working in the broad area of health, to bring new perspectives to their education, and further their career. Recipients are selected based on their well-roundedness, accomplishments and future innovation, leadership, and potential impact on the healthcare landscape.
SBME PhD student Matthew Hickey brings a wealth of experience, potential, excellence, and vision to the table. He has earned the Andrew Nord Fellowship in Rheumatology, an NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (Doctoral Program), an Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship, and the 2018 SBME PhD Rotation Award, amongst others. Matthew has also represented SBME and won research presentation awards in virtual competitions and conferences in France and beyond! Matthew is also a proponent of science communication and equity. He created, organized, and hosted two full SBME-related workshops for Science World’s Girls and STEAM Symposium related to 3D printing and microfluidics.
This award will fund Matthew’s 8-month research project in Glasgow, Scotland where he’ll represent UBC in a collaboration with the University of Strathclyde and Golden Jubilee Nation Hospital. The project began in September and will focus on a data-driven approach to investigating causes of implant failure and poor patient outcomes in total knee replacement.
A Step Back
Matthew Hickey hails from a small town in Newfoundland. Growing up, he didn’t have the expectation that he needed to go to university. (In fact, he is the first person in his family to pursue a doctorate.) It wasn’t a life path that came naturally to Matthew, not in the least because he encountered a lot of people who made assumptions about his intelligence and capabilities due to his “Newfie” accent and lack of a metropolitan background.
“My family got along with what we had, and we ensured we reconnected with our indigenous roots after generations of suppression,” Matthew shares.
With that, he decided to explore what was outside of that world while still keeping in touch with his roots. That mindset, along with his drive for growth and innovation, has taken Matthew to Vancouver and now his first residence outside of Canada. At the centre of this journey is Matthew’s drive to improve the lives of knee replacement patients and serve his communities as a true leader.
Matthew was drawn to biomedical engineering by way of passion and purpose. He learned quickly in his Undergrad studies what he did not like to do. His first co-op term was with a mechanical design firm where he worked on designing machinery for tire manufacturing. The work was technical, complex, and economically important, but that wasn’t enough.
“I just didn’t care about the outcomes,” Matthew admits. “Working in medical technology, your success isn’t just measured economically; there is an additional focus on improving peoples’ lives. It’s the latter that drives me.”
Luckily, he had the opportunity to work for a biomedical start-up company during his senior Capstone Design project and continued his work with them even after graduation. It was this step that set Matthew on a steadfast focus on biomedical engineering for his graduate studies.
Step by Step
It started with a grand vision to transform the realm of knee replacement surgeries. Matthew has had quite a few close people in his life who have struggled with orthopedic injuries and he has seen their roads to recovery after medical intervention. He’s witnessed the tremendous improvements that have taken place in this field, and yet he knows there’s still a long path to walk.
“I want to ensure that my work helps improve patient outcomes and hopefully improve their quality of life.”
With a background mechanical engineering, Matthew’s initial project was to re-design and build a knee replacement robot that his lab had been working on. However, plans changed when he discovered something important in the literature review process: the issue with knee replacement surgery wasn’t precision, because existing robots are great at placing implants. The issue was accuracy. Overall, there is very little agreement in the research and in the clinic on where implants should be placed to maximize best patient outcomes.
Matthew is now looking to identify the causal factors (the “why”) in cases where knee replacements fail or result in poor patient outcomes. He has the Surgical Technologies Lab as his research playground as well as the expertise of the Lab’s lead investigator, Dr. Antony Hodgson, and Dr. Bassam Masri. The challenge that Matthew is coming up against is getting the amount of data for the type of study that could indicate the causes of implant failure. Their team would need high accuracy measurements of where the implant was placed during surgery and how that knee replacement is functioning post-operatively.
Up until now, Matthew been working on this problem in the simulation space. Now, with this upcoming collaboration in Scotland that’s facilitated by the Friedman Award, he will have access to the real-word clinical data that will hopefully allow his team to shed some light on where an implant needs to be placed to promote better patient outcomes and determine if individual patients will require unique placements.
The Journey Ahead
Through this type of research, Matthew’s team anticipates that they’ll be able to uncover new insights into the causal links between what happens in surgery (where the implant is placed) and patient outcomes. These improvements in their understanding will provide the basis for the rationale and informed design of the next generation of computer-assisted surgery techniques. This way, they can focus design efforts on the most critical combinations of surgeon-controlled parameters and make the most rapid progress in improving patient outcomes in total knee replacements.
Through this type of research, Matthew’s team anticipates that they’ll be able to uncover new insights into the causal links between what happens in surgery (where the implant is placed) and patient outcomes. These improvements in their understanding will provide the basis for the rationale and informed design of the next generation of computer-assisted surgery techniques. This way, they can focus design efforts on the most critical combinations of surgeon-controlled parameters and make the most rapid progress in improving patient outcomes in total knee replacements.
“No matter your background, or the obstacles you have faced, you deserve to follow your career aspirations while also creating an enjoyable personal life. In my experience, the most important quality of a true, effective leader is genuine care for their community. This means leaving your ego at the door and working with the collective towards a common goal without compromising your values.”
So what’s in the future for Matthew? With the Friedman Award for Scholars in Health, he will have the opportunity to connect with his international colleagues (and explore more European culture while he is there). Matthew is excited to bring his fiancé and dog along for the adventure ahead.
This story is part of the SBME’s Building Today, Leading Tomorrow series. Follow along as we Discover, Invent, and Translate for the future.