ORTHOPEDICS DESIGN >>
Personalizing
Orthopedic Implants
With contract manufacturers and new technologies, orthopedics companies can
deliver cost-effective customized implants with short lead times.
Andy Christensen and David Chen
The U.S. market for re- Barriers to Customization
constructive joint re- Although the technology ex-placements and spinal ists, the current processes em-hardware is valued at $17.3 ployedtocreatepatient-specific
billion.1 As it grows, the mar- implants are often flawed for a
ket seems to be getting more variety of reasons. Customiza-personal, with an increase tion requires a switch in think-in the use of patient-specific ing, and orthopedic product
implants. New technology is manufacturers should consid-enabling quick, cost-effective er whether their processes are
creation of exactly the right hindering the ability to move
hip, knee, shoulder, or spinal to personalization.
section for an individual pa- Volume Manufacturing.
tient in a matter of weeks, not Orthopedic product manu-months. Contract manufac- facturers often gear their op-turers that specialize in digital erations for volume manufac-manufacturing technologies turing, for which they design
are playing a key role in driv- once, and then manufacture
ing this change. Innovations efficiently in volume. They
in new business processes generally refine designs for
provide lessons for orthopedic simplicity and cost, not neces-industry players on the evolv- sarily custom patient fit, and
ing WDB: all-digital work A 3-D image of a patient’s pelvis showing existing implants in they stay with a single design
flow. Orthopedics companies red. Note that the implant on the patient’s left side (on right for many years. They may
need to understand how best in this image) is severely displaced. view deviations from standard
to leverage outside contract processing techniques, such
manufacturing resources to comple- as those required for custom implant
ment internal expertise. creation, as unprofitable. And com-
In the past, replacement hips, knees, panies that do create patient-specific
and sections of spinal columns came implants often do so as a favor to a
in a small range of sizes primarily be- valued client, without tailoring the
cause manufacturing processes were work flow for efficiency.
Lead Times. For a custom orthopedic implant, design technicians may
need up to three months of lead time.
The work flow includes interpreting
the CT scans, making rough prototypes
Andy Christensen is president of
Medical Modeling Inc. (Golden CO),
and David Chen is CTO for SensAble
Technologies Inc. (Woburn MA).
too costly and labor-intensive to support low-volume or custom projects.
Today, aging baby boomers receive repeat implants, and surgeons strive to
preserve the patient’s own bone structure in case replacements are needed.
Although many more sizes of off-the-shelf implants are available in modular
designs that can be used together, off-the-shelf implants are not always the
best answer for a number of cases.
