There is always room for improvement, and orthopaedic implants still have a way to go in materials development. Some of these opportunities to make implants better will be discussed at this year’s OrthoTec conference in Warsaw, IN in June.

When working with new materials, there are three main challenges—biocompatibility, regulation, and cost, according to Robert Hastings, director of research at DePuy Orthopaedics. Hastings is chairing the OrthoTec panel, “New Materials Technology and Applications” on June 6.

 

Biocompatibility. How do you determine the safety of biocompatibility of a material? When working with novel materials, manufacturers must assume a level of risk. “We just can’t predict and understand [exactly] what kinds of tests we would need to run on certain materials or products,” Hastings says. “As we continue to evolve, we become better at coming up with test methods, and biocompatibility, animal studies, etc. that allow us to better understand the [material’s] behavior.”

 

Cost. As manufacturers experience global price pressures, they are challenged to maintain a high level of performance and quality at a lower cost.

 

Regulation. “As the regulatory organizations around the world start to think twice about how they’re approving products for the market, the challenge is how do we work with them to figure out the best way to understand how these materials and products behave and allow them on the market without completely shutting everything down,” says Hastings.  

In a nutshell, the panel will provide an overview of a new opportunities and exciting materials for orthopaedic devices. There are some developments in the following key areas, so you won’t want to miss out on this session. Here are some of the topics: