Outstanding student awarded for charity helping children in the developing world

Bioengineering PhD graduate recognised for his hard work and commitment - <em>News</em>

Friday 16 May 2008
By Naomi Weston

Helping children with deformities in the developing world is the mission behind a charity set up by Imperial College bioengineering PhD graduate Adam Hill.

This work won him the Student Award for Outstanding Achievement at the Postgraduate Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 14 May in recognition of his work and commitment to paediatric orthopaedics.

Set up in November 2006, the charity Operation Frameworks works with children disabled by congenital and traumatic spinal and limb deformities in the developing world. The charity also funds scientific and engineering research into the causes, effects and treatment of disabling childhood limb and spinal conditions.

There are approximately 125 million poverty stricken, physically disabled children worldwide.

We met Adam Hill, now an Honorary Research Fellow in Imperial’s Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology to find out more:

How did you go about setting up Operation Frameworks?

I first went to South Africa in 2006 on my return to clinical medicine as part of my elective to experience what another health system was like. I saw first-hand the plight of children with deformities and realised there are huge health inequalities preventing them from accessing treatment. On my return, I was invited to visit a hospital in India and decided to set up the charity to provide cheap and do-able solutions to some of the problems I saw.

What were the biggest challenges you faced?

The biggest challenge was initially the administrative side of setting up a charity. Once achieved, we have been faced with raising awareness and fundraising, both tremendous challenges for a new charity.

What projects has the charity backed?

Adam Hill awarded

Operation Frameworks supports Paediatric Orthopaedic Devices which is part of EnVision 2010, a College project aiming to make sure that engineering teaching at Imperial is world-class. Paediatric Orthopaedic Devices enables students to develop blue-prints for artificial limbs for use in the developing world. The future will involve developing these ideas and teaching local hospitals how to manufacture the limbs themselves. We send a couple of students a year to one of our projects in the developing world. Operation Frameworks also runs a scheme called ‘Mend-a-Bone’, which pairs donors or benefactors with children in need in India.

Who helped and inspired you to start this work?

My family are my inspiration to achieve; each individual child we help is the inspiration to strive to help the next child. My PhD supervisor Dr Anthony Bull and my clinical tutor Dr Alison McGregor have both been integral to the success of this project.

What plans have you got for the charity’s future?

At the moment the charity is mainly conducting work in India and I hope to expand this into Zambia, where a Tropical Surgery Research Unit has recently been set up. In addition, I would like to develop a telecommunications link between hospitals in London with clinics in the developing world enabling information to be passed over the internet. The relationship is of reciprocal benefit; we will be helping clinicians by discussing case management over the internet and we can get involved in the management of patients with disorders all but eradicated in the developing world.

I hope to continue developing the charity alongside my career as an academic and with a little luck this might even be at Imperial College in the future.

How do you feel winning the Student Award for Outstanding Achievement?

I feel really privileged and honoured to receive this award; it was all the more poignant to be recognised by the institution that has made my passion for this possible. But still, I was a little nervous about meeting Sir Richard up on stage!