Personalized Medicine
When this reporter toured the Medacta manufacturing facility outside of Lugano, there were a number of “wow” moments. The most astonishing aspect of the visit, however, was the engineering room.
“Which one of you is my engineer?” asked a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who was on the tour.
“These two people over here,” cried a Medacta employee.
“Let me shake your hands,” said the surgeon. “My implants have always been perfect.”
These Medacta engineers handle the planning and biomechanical modeling for thousands of patients each month. And best of all, a surgeon in Toledo, Los Angeles or Sydney can pick up the phone and call his or her engineer directly and say, “We need to make a couple of adjustments.”
Francesco Siccardi: “It takes 2-3 weeks to print the patient-specific blocks. Robotics/navigation is one way to execute the planning, but it is not cost effective, i.e., the per-case cost is rather high. Our goal is to reduce the intensity of the capital requirements to near zero.”
“This is now possible with our new augmented reality platform as its development has enabled us to transform the hardware and technology into two single-use devices and nothing else. The platform includes a proprietary, single-use camera that requires no capital equipment. At the present time this system is available for knee and spine, with plans to expand into hip and shoulder.”
“The Surgeon Must Never Be Alone”
At the manufacturing facility that day the elder Siccardi—Alberto—reaffirmed the company’s philosophy, saying, “The surgeon must never be alone.”
Medacta’s commitment to education is far beyond the typical “watch a video, do a two-day course” type of experience.
Francesco Siccardi: “When we began training surgeons on the AMIS (anterior minimally invasive surgery) technique several years ago, it was clear that we needed to make the approach more straightforward and enhance its reproducibility.”
“To that end we created the Medacta Orthopaedic Research and Education (M.O.R.E.) Institute to provide ongoing support to medical professionals in order to advance our ultimate goal of superb patient care.”
“Surgeons must often go through the learning curve multiple times,” says Siccardi, “thus Medacta surgeons ‘follow’ their pupils after training. We rely on surgeons to train other surgeons…we only facilitate the training experience.”
And this world-class education isn’t just for surgeons.
Medacta’s Patient Optimized Pathway (POP) app allows physicians to support their patients before, during, and after surgery. The app allows surgeons to better manage patient expectations, increase patient compliance and add value to the overall patient care experience. “What should I do if the scar has become red, painful, swollen or if there is fluid loss? When can I drive?” are part of the informative FAQ section of the POP app.
