Digitalized aftercare in orthopaedics

Orthopaedic surgery has greatly improved over the past decades, with better implants and evolution of surgical techniques enhancing patient outcomes. Increasingly, surgeons can also rely on the assistance from digitalized equipment and devices in the operation theater.

In contrast, the aftercare of e.g. fracture patients has barely changed in the past years. A lack of reliable information on the progression of bone healing prevents effective and individualized treatment regimens.

A novel implant system, developed at the AO Research Institute Davos, strives to change current aftercare by providing continuous, objective data on the healing status. The implant actively measures the load on the fracture fixation hardware and regularly transmits the recorded parameters telemetrically to a cloud server, thereby supporting the surgeon in therapeutic decision making through remote monitoring.