Customized porous structures and advanced testing for orthopedic implants

The number of shoulder replacements is projected to increase by 300-400% between 2020 and 2040. With the current technology, 10% of those artificial shoulder implants will fail within the first 10 years of service, mainly due to soft tissue failure, infection, and implant loosening. The specific type and timescale of failure depends on the type of implant, patient age, and other patient specific metrics, but to avoid a similar exponential increase in revision surgeries, the next generation of implants must mitigate the known failure mechanisms. CUSTOM brings together all relevant academic and industrial expertise that enables a concept to clinical overview of emerging medical device technologies, and applies them to the shoulder implant as a use case. CUSTOM focuses on combining (1) computational tools that allow patient-specific design, (2) additive manufacturing to realize the custom, complex designs and structures and their further postprocessing to incorporate multi-functionality, and (3) blended in-silico and experimental testing to reduce the burden on experimental testing for certification. In doing so, CUSTOM can address the major failure mechanisms of current shoulder implants and improve their overall functionality and longevity. The project leverages this research as a tool to train the next generation of researchers in the necessary technical skills on design, manufacturing, testing, and certification. CUSTOM connects the researchers to all relevant stakeholders including surgeons, patients, researchers, as well as certification and regulation bodies, and combines it with soft skill training to develop transferable and entrepreneurial skills that are required to translate their research and ideas into the next generation of orthopaedic implants.