For more on PFFD, a disease which can cripple children, please see my project-oriented page PFFD project and visit the PFFD Virtual Support Group Page .

I am suggesting ideas which may have some value for scientists and physicians interested in an improved response to PFFD. Many of the ideas which are helpful for PFFD should be relevant for other areas. I will keep them in the following arbitrary (but chronological) order in order to facilitate future reference.

1. Wooden screws, instead of metal, to hold the bone. Wood has some superior properties including antiseptic, mechanically yielding, and natural. Exact screws were built years ago before metal was customary, and with CAD-CAM and laser fabrication, the apparatus could be made to fit the child.
2. Voice-controlled application service provider (VCASP) to give physicians a 3-D picture of the child's limb, with exact measurements provided between any two given points, also allowing the limb to be put into motion in a model of the child's musculo-skeletal articulation. The physician would thus have the virtual presence of technicians, scientists and mathematicians, receiving their assistance by voice: ``turn it around the axis'' or ``how many centimeters of improvement will the operation provide?''.
3. Nanotechnology for bone therapy with screws replaced by an invisible network of submicroscopic filaments, penetrating through bodily tissue without disruption. Just as cells are individually held together only by proteins but en masse provide solid support, the nanotech splint could hold the bone securely. Moreover, it would be able to provide realtime information on the propagation of stress and electromagnetic tensors; further, the network of filaments might provide a desired physical signal to the bone: heat, EM field, stress tensor or acoustic vibration.

A recent e-mail remarks that at least one person was able to run a triathalon in spite of pffd. However, amputation is still listed as an option as recently as Feb. 2005 according to the PFFD VSG page.

Back to my classroom page . 3-12-05