Pukyong National University Student Sinhwa-rang Wins Best Paper Award at SPIE International Conference

Master's Student Researches Laser Treatment for Urinary Incontinence Without Catheterization

Shinhwa-rang, a master's student in the Department of 4th Industrial Convergence Bionics Engineering at Pukyong National University (President Jang Young-su), recently received the Best Paper Award at the SPIE Photonics West 2024 international conference organized by the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) held in San Francisco, USA.

Shin Hwarang, a master's student in the Department of 4th Industrial Convergence Bionics Engineering at Pukyong National University.

At this international conference, he presented “A Feasibility Study of Non-ablative Laser Treatment for Stress Urinary Incontinence” (supervised by Professor Kang Hyun-wook, Department of Biomedical Engineering) and was awarded the Best Paper Award (BSC Best Paper Award) and a prize of $1,000 from Boston Scientific, a global medical device company.

In this study, Shinhwa-rang presented preclinical research results on non-ablative laser treatment for stress urinary incontinence to develop a treatment method for urinary incontinence, receiving the highest evaluation.

Urinary incontinence commonly occurs in one out of three women and is a condition where urine leaks involuntarily. It causes discomfort in daily life and significantly lowers quality of life, sometimes referred to as a social stigma. Existing surgical treatments for urinary incontinence have limitations such as complications from artificial implants and slow recovery due to incisions.

In this preclinical study, Shinhwa-rang combined a balloon-structured device with an optical fiber capable of 360-degree light delivery and irradiated the laser inside the pig urethra, then analyzed structural changes in the urethra and collagen distribution.

The results showed increased muscle thickness and collagen distribution in the pig urethral tissue after laser irradiation. He believes this study demonstrates the potential of laser-based urinary incontinence treatment and will overcome the limitations of existing treatments, planning to proceed with clinical trials as a follow-up study.

Shinhwa-rang received research support from the National Research Foundation of Korea’s Science and Engineering Field University-Focused Research Institute Support Project (Principal Investigator Professor Jung Won-kyo) and the 4th Phase BK21 New Senior Customized Healthcare Project (Project Director Professor Lee Byung-il). He also achieved outstanding results through international joint research and industry-academia cooperation with Dr. Lee Ye-chan (Internal Medicine, University of Michigan) and Researcher Lim Sung-hee (Bluecore Company).

The SPIE international society is the most prestigious engineering society worldwide, with 250,000 cumulative members from 183 countries. This conference was attended by more than 24,000 technical experts from about 70 countries, with over 5,000 papers presented.