Supporting the future of hip replacement surgery

Posted by June Heath on 17 October 2025

RNOH Charity is proud to celebrate the impact of its funding for Institute of Healthcare Engineering (IHE) Summer Studentships, which are nurturing the latest generation of PhD researchers advancing hip replacement surgery. These placements have given talented students hands-on experience at RNOH, bridging engineering and clinical practice, and underpinning groundbreaking PhD projects. The team tells us more.

Mr Johann Henckel, an RNOH orthopaedic surgeon works with Anna Di Laura, a bioengineer in UCL Mechanical Engineering. Together, they lead a team of engineering researchers at the Institute of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Science based at RNOH in Stanmore. They are interested in the ways robotics and imaging software can help surgeons better plan and perform hip replacement surgery, a procedure performed approximately 1.5 million times a year globally, with about 100,000 of these procedures in the UK. 

Tailored surgery for every patient

Every person’s anatomy is unique so each hip replacement must be carefully planned and tailored to the individual. When implants do not fit correctly – for example, rubbing against the pelvis or degrading faster than expected – surgeons may need to perform revision surgery. These researchers are looking to reduce complications like this and make hip replacements last as long as possible.

Innovation in action

PhD students Angelika Ramesh and Xing Lim are working hard to bring their learning to life. Using medical imaging and advanced software, they build 3D digital templates of a patient’s hip from CT scans. This allows the medical team to accurately plan the orientation, size and design of implants. The implant components are inserted into the femur and pelvis, and a well-fitting implant encourages bone to grow into it over time, ensuring stability and long-term success.

How charitable support is helping

Both Xing and Angelika got their first taste of this research through the Institute of Healthcare Engineering (IHE) Summer Studentship, a programme giving UCL Engineering students eight weeks in a clinical setting like RNOH, with placements funded by RNOH Charity. Students gain first-hand experience with clinicians and engineers on real healthcare engineering projects. Xing and Angelika are now PhD students in UCL Mechanical Engineering.

Angelika was part of the first IHE intake in 2021, when she was an undergraduate student in medical physics. She was placed with Johann and Anna’s team and says: “Medical physics is a combination of science and medicine. Getting a clinical or hospital-based internship is so difficult these days, so when I saw the IHE Summer Studentship, it really stood out to me – I was trying to gain that experience.

“During the studentship, every day was different. Some days I went into the operating theatre to watch a surgery. There were other days when I was at the outpatient clinic, seeing the people who had previously been just a CT scan on a computer screen. Seeing them made it so much more real. And sometimes I was working with PhD students and learning about their work.”

After completing her studies, Angelika reached out to Johann to see if he knew of any work opportunities. That’s when she was offered the PhD post.

Xing was placed within the team when she completed the IHE Summer Studentship in 2023. 

“I applied for the studentship because I knew I wanted to do a PhD, and I wanted to gain more research experience,” Xing explains.

“When I did my studentship, I was told, ‘this is what we’ve identified, this is the idea, now we need a way to actually execute it’. So, I think I had a lot of freedom to figure out how to get the outcome they wanted. I had the chance to see how surgeons interact with patients in the clinic and the impact it had on patients. That’s what made me interested in pursuing this, so I reached out to see if I could come back and join the team.”

Over the years, Anna and Johann have supervised seven summer students. They both believe the IHE Summer Studentship scheme has had enormous benefits for the team.

“The IHE Summer Studentship allows us to engage exceptional students in advancing our research and building larger projects with the potential to grow into PhD programmes, enriching both the students and our team,” says Anna. 

Johann agrees: “The programme has really worked for us. Two out of seven going on to do a PhD is pretty impressive – I couldn’t have asked for more. 

“I think it works so well because they’ve had a taster, so they know exactly what they’re going into. They appreciate the challenges of working in a hospital, and the fact that they choose to do this over their summer holidays says a lot about them as individuals.” 

Johann and Anna’s summer students have gone on to publish their research in well-respected journals and present their work at conferences. 

“This is about engineering meeting medicine,” says Johann. “I really want to sell the clinical side of what we do to engineers.”

Wider impact

With demand for hip replacement surgery on the rise, funding these IHE studentships means RNOH Charity is helping ensure talented researchers can translate engineering innovation into real-world patient benefits. We wish the students every success as they continue their learning.

Project reporting by the Institute of Healthcare Engineering