Author: Rosa Armitage

The strategic goals of the ITTC-JB are to train and develop future leaders, advance the field of digitally informed joint biomechanics and personalised orthopaedic treatment, and to facilitate the translation of knowledge and technologies through meaningful collaboration. To contribute to these three goals, a Seed Grant scheme was proposed back in July 2022 to empower the future workforce of our Centre (PhD students and Post-doctoral Fellows) to independently develop a project proposal, communicate their idea, and carry out a project.    

With a total of 15,000 AUD on offer to launch a key research project that would harness the strengths of each of our 4 program streams (Computational methods to assess shoulder function – Program 1, robot assisted testing and surgery – Program 2, Optimised tissue-engineered scaffolds, with a focus on bioengineered scaffolds to assist in the repair of rotator cuff tears – Program 3, and In vivo assessment of upper limb movements, physiology and rehabilitation – Program 4), the teams developed their project ideas, team membership, grant application writing skills and pitching skills across a series of 4 workshops. 

On November 25th 2022 at the ARC Training Centre for Joint Biomechanics’ Annual Research Symposium, four teams pitched their grant submissions to our esteemed panel of judges Mr. Massoud Shahi (Zimmer Biomet), Prof. Yi-Chin Toh (QUT (Queensland University of Technology) University of Technology), Prof. Kevin Tetsworth (MQ Health), and Prof. Peter Pivonka (QUT (Queensland University of Technology) in a short but concise 5 minutes.  

After much deliberation, we are proud to award 2 successful applications:

‘Biomechanical characteristics of the human supraspinatus tendon in vivo under physiological loading.’

Lead investigators: Dr. Bart Bolsterlee, Dr. Eleonore Bolle, and Dr. Wolbert van den Hoorn; with co-investigators Dr Freek Hollman, Miss Yilan (Olivia) Zhang, Miss Asawari P., and Miss Sepideh Shemshad. Industry mentors: Prof. Lynne Bilston (University of New South Wales) and Adj. Prof. Ken Cutbush (Ken Cutbush Clinic – Brisbane Private Hospital).

‘Toward precision tracking of the shoulder joint using ultrasound tomography.’

Lead investigator: Dr Dermot O’Rourke; with Mr Arun Jolly, Mr Ahmed Sewify, Miss Natali Uribe, Dr Roberto Pareyon, Mr Maxence Lavaill, and Mr xiaolong fan. Academic mentor: A/Prof Saulo Martelli.

We want to thank our unsuccessful teams with the following submissions: 

‘Explainable Deep Learning approach for shoulder abnormalities detection.’ 

Lead Investigator: Dr Laith Alzubaidi; with co-investigators Mr. Jinshuai Bai, Dr. Asma Salhi, and Dr. Freek Hollman. Industry mentors: Prof. Yuantong Gu (QUT), Adj. Prof. Ashish Gupta (QUASR, Greenslopes Private Hospital, Akunah), and external collaborator Prof. Amin Abbosh (University of Queensland).  

‘Non-invasive assessment of rotator cuff function’ 

Lead Investigator: Dr. Wolly van den Hoorn; co-investigators: Dr. Eleonore Bolle, Dr. Roberto Pareyon, Mr. Francois Bruyer-Monteleone, and Miss Yuyao (Amy) Ma. Industry mentors: Prof. Francois Hug from the Université Côte D’Azur, A/Prof Kylie Tucker (University of Queensland), and Adj. Prof Ashish Gupta (QUASR, Greenslopes Private Hospital, Akunah).  

 We wish the winners all the best for their multi-disciplinary projects, with further developments to come. 

On Friday 25th of November, the ARC Training Centre for Joint Biomechanics showcased their biomedical research and commitment to personalised patient care in their annual research symposium.

Held at the home of the IITC, the Queensland University of Technology’s Science and Engineering Centre, P Block at Garden’s Point campus our researchers students, industry (Stryker, Zimmer Biomet, Logemas, Australian Biotechnologies, ), clinical (Greenslopes Private Hospital, Adj. Prof Ashish Gupta and Adj. Prof. Ken Cutbush), and academic partners from the University of Queensland, University of New South Wales, visited the centre to review our research highlights from 2022.

For some, it was a first-time visit with members of the center team usually located in University of New South Wales and NeURA (post-doc Dr. Bart Bolsterlee, PhD student Yilan Zhang, and PhD student Mr. Hossein Ahmadi) meeting their colleagues for the first time.

The research symposium was opened by Centre Director Prof. Yuantong Gu with the official Welcome to Country where we acknowledged the Turrbal and Yugara as the First Nations owners of the lands where QUT currently stands; which was shortly followed by our 4 progam stream updates by our program leads and post-docs as follows:

Program 1
Prof Peter Pivonka – In-silico Upper Extremity Modelling & Simulation
Dr Bart Bolsterlee – Diffusion tensor imaging for assessment of muscle architecture in the shoulder

Program 2
A/Prof Saulo Martelli – Robotically assisted Joint Testing and Surgical Guidance
Dr Dermot O’Rourke – Biomechanical comparison of techniques for glenoid component implantation in shoulder arthroplasty

Program 3
Prof Justin Cooper-White & Dr. Eleonore Bolle – Tissue-engineered Scaffolds for Rotator Cuff Repair

Program 4
Prof Graham Kerr – Treatment Effectiveness – Digital & robotic technologies for upper limb movement assessment, physiology and rehabilitation
Dr Wolbert van den Hoorn – Validity of post-surgical shoulder mobility assessment tool: mymobility® App

After some refreshment, the symposium continued with the launch of our Seed Grant Scheme session and an inspirational speech by our guest Mr. Stephen Delo, Innovation Consultant expert and symposium career panellist. Mr Delo. brought his immense experience in his talk entitled ‘A Culture & Practice of Innovation,’ where he detailed insights and lessons from his extensive career in personal leadership and team management across 2 navies.

As an innovation consultant, Steve’s career has brought him to face many challenges and to tackle many career opportunities across a breadth of disciplines. He is currently acting as the Senior Advisor, Innovation, for the New Zealand Defence Force where he has established and facilitated networks and processes to assist intrapreneurial activity now leading to international engagements.  He also currently works with Black Sky Aerospace as he applies his transformative leadership to innovative start-ups.

Steve offered the following simple, yet immensely powerful advice on how to create a culture of innovation to the team, regardless of career stage or discipline:

– Innovation is a resource and a commodity you can trade. It is valuable and not to be underestimated. Self belief is one the biggest factors for success. Move forward and ask yourself, ‘What is the risk of not doing it?’

– The team is more powerful than the individual. How do you measure success. Individually or as a team?

– Innovation is a social activity. Plant the seed and pay it forward to your team so they too can have the opportunities to advance.

– The seas of life can be rough, your team is your life jacket.

Steve’s talk highlighted the importance of collaboration and team dynamics for successful innovation across companies, industries, and fields which is core to the governance structure and vision for personalised patient care for the centre.

With this introduction, we introduced our seed grant pitchers who were tasked with designing cross-program and collaborative research projects with industry, academia, and our clinical partners for the opportunity to win a seed grant to to maximum total of $15,000 AUD.

Our 4 contenders presented their pitches to our esteemed seed grant panellists: Mr. Massoud Shahi (Zimmer Biomet), Prof. Yi-Chin Toh (QUT (Queensland University of Technology) University of Technology), Prof. Kevin Tetsworth (MQ Health), and Prof. Peter Pivonka (QUT (Queensland University of Technology).

Order of Presentations:

1. ‘Explainable Deep Learning approach for shoulder abnormalities detection.’  Lead Investigator: Dr Laith Alzubaidi; with co-investigators Mr. Jinshuai Bai, Dr. Asma Salhi, and Dr. Freek Hollman. Industry mentors: Prof. Yuantong Gu (QUT), Adj. Prof. Ashish Gupta (QUASR, Greenslopes Private Hospital, Akunah), and external collaborator Prof. Amin Abbosh (University of Queensland).

2. ‘Biomechanical characteristics of the human supraspinatus tendon in vivo under physiological loading.’ Lead investigators: Dr. Bart Bolsterlee, Dr. Eleonore Bolle, and Dr. Wolbert van den Hoorn; with co-investigators Dr Freek Hollman, Miss Yilan (Olivia) Zhang, Miss Asawari P., and Miss Sepideh Shemshad. Industry mentors: Prof. Lynne Bilston (University of New South Wales) and Adj. Prof. Ken Cutbush (Ken Cutbush Clinic – Brisbane Private Hospital).

3.  ‘Non-invasive assessment of rotator cuff function.’ Lead Investigator: Dr. Wolly van den Hoorn; co-investigators: Dr. Eleonore Bolle, Dr. Roberto Pareyon, Mr. Francois Bruyer-Monteleone, and Miss Yuyao (Amy) Ma. Industry mentors: Prof. Francois Hug from the Université Côte D’Azur, A/Prof Kylie Tucker (University of Queensland), and Adj. Prof Ashish Gupta (QUASR, Greenslopes Private Hospital, Akunah).

4. ‘Toward precision tracking of the shoulder joint using ultrasound tomography.’ Lead investigator: Dr Dermot O’Rourke; with Mr Arun Jolly, Mr Ahmed Sewify, Miss Natali Uribe, Dr Roberto Pareyon, Mr Maxence Lavaill, and Mr xiaolong fan. Academic mentor: A/Prof Saulo Martelli.

After an exciting back and forth between the presenters, judges, and audience with some tricky questions, we welcomed our career panellists A/Prof Kylie Tucker (The University of Queensland), Mr Alex Muir (Logemas), Ms Jenna Lyon (Stryker), and Mr. Stephen Delo MBE, FCPHR to share their unique insights into collaboration, teamwork, and what it takes to succeed in the world of collaborative research and as part our our panel ‘Innovation Culture and Your Career.’ Moderated by our clinical lead Adj. Prof. Ashish Gupta (QUASR, Greenslopes Private Hospital), Akunah, the panel shared a few gems with the audience regarding the elements for successfully building a career and creating opportunities for yourself and others:

1. Mr Stephen Delo MBE, FCPHR: It is important for each member for the team to be who they are. Everyone brings a superpower, and that’s what people look for when building a team. The trick is to ensure joint vision so individuality doesn’t cost the team goal. Everyone must pull in the same direction.

2. Ms Jenna Lyon: Recruiters acknowledge the balance between technical ability and team fit. Attitude and self-motivation can make someone stand out more than their technical ability.

3. Mr Alex Muir: Values are important in collaborative team work and recruitment – ensure you research the company’s values and get clear on how you align before approaching them.

4. Mr Stephen Delo MBE, FCPHR : Mindset is a switch – it can be turned on and off. be mindful of self-talk and how you perceive others to foster motivation.

With thanks to our panellists and gifts of appreciation, at 5:00pm we moved to our last segment of the day with our poster display and networking event in the Cube. It was fantastic to see the students sharing their research methodology and results with the industry partners, and the great interest taken in particular by our early PhD students in the center to Mr. Delo’s work regarding collaborative culture and career coaching.

At 5:30pm we celebrated one last substantial achievement, with the announcement of our seed grant winners:  Team 1 ‘Explainable Deep Learning approach for shoulder abnormalities detection.’  Lead Investigator: Dr Laith Alzubaidi, and Team 4 ‘Toward precision tracking of the shoulder joint using ultrasound tomography.’ Lead investigator: Dr Dermot O’Rourke.

Thank-you again to our key partners and our industry partners from our Industry Advisory Committee (IAC). Left to Right: Adj. Prof. Ashish Gupta (QUASR, Greenslopes Private Hospital, akunah), Prof. Peter Pivonka (QUT (Queensland University of Technology) & Centre Deputy Director), Mr Alex Muir (Logemas), Ms Jenna Lyon (Stryker), Mr David Brezzo (Zimmer Biomet), Ms Monica Russell (Materialise), and Prof. Yuantong Gu (QUT (Queensland University of Technology), Centre Director).

We can’t wait to showcase our research developments and growth with you all at the next Research Symposium.

Thank-you to everyone at the  Australian New Zealand Society of Biomechanics (ANZSB) and everyone involved in the organisation of the 13th Australasian Biomechanics Conference (ABC13).

The 13th Australasian Biomechanics Conference (ABC13) was held in Brisbane and what a fantastic opportunity it was for the team to come together with their biomechanical colleagues and showcase their research highlights from the last 12 months. 

With three full exciting days of lectures, workshops and innovation from Nov 27th to Nov 29th, we wish to congratulate the team on the following achievements: 

Presentations:

  

Mr. xiaolong fan addressed the complication rates from mechanical implant failure of the humeral component in reverse total shoulder arthroplasty by presenting a novel time-elapsed microstructural imaging protocol for observing the volumetric deformation of a humerus implanted with a common shoulder reverse implant in his talk ‘Time-elapsed microstructural imaging of failure of a reverse shoulder implant.’

Mr. Maxence Lavaill then provided a professional presentation on the #Latarjet procedure (a surgical technique used to stabilise the #glenohumeral joint (GHJ) after recurrent anterior dislocations due to anterior genoid bone defect, and his project to quantify the change in muscle forces and joints following surgery using computational musculoskeletal (MSK) models. His talk was entitled ‘ Muscle coordination after Latarjet increases joint stability: A musculoskeletal study.’ 

Spine Biomechanics:

Our affiliate PhD student, Miss Natalia Mühl Castoldi, presented her work on spinal bulk growth models in the framework of generalized continuum mechanics to better understand the mechanisms linked to spinal growth.

Shape Modelling in Biomechanics

Centre post-doc Dr. Dermot O’Rourke detailed his research into knee bone geometries passive tibiofemoral motion variation using partial least square regression (PLSR). 

#Clinical Biomechanics and Imaging:

Miss Yilan (Olivia) Zhang, Prof. Lynne Bilston, Prof. Robert Herbert & Dr. Bart Bolsterlee ‘ Three dimensional architecture of human rotator cuff muscles in vivo.’ 

Prof. Lynne Bilston & Dr. Bart Bolsterlee ‘in vivo compressive shear properties of adipose tissue (fat).’

Conference Posters

Affiliate PhD student Mr. Corey Miller ‘A multiscale, mechanobiological model of cortical bone adaption due to Pth and mechanical loading.’ 

Dr. Wolbert van den Hoorn & Prof. Graham Kerr ‘Mapping magnetic field disturbances in motion capture labs.’ 

Affiliate PhD student Miss Laura Maszaros ‘Differences in load-sharing using a generic and subject specific neuro-musculoskeletal model of the spine.’ 

With culmination in the final dinner held at Felons Brewery, the team had a wonderful time connecting over all things biomechanical!

A huge thank-you to the major sponsor Logemas and to Materialise for their fantastic workshop ‘MIS Workshop- Beginners Session.’ 

We look forward to attending ABC14 in 2023! 

On November 24th 2022, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr Dr Shari Walsh from Resilient Researcher who presented her workshop ‘Spreading the word (presenting & networking).’

Our phd students and post-docs learned tips on how to overcome the all-too-common anxiety that comes with presenting and networking, as well as body language skills to both present confidently and to read networking situations to assert ourselves and make valuable connections.

Some useful tips were:

*Ground yourself before presentations. Carry a stone or favourite object in your pocket to centre yourself. Consider harnessing #deepbreathingand power poses to boost your performance.

*Try to read networking situations and whether groups are open or closed to determine if it is acceptable to make an approach.

*When attending a networking event, try to get access to the guest list and pre-prepare some questions. Asking ‘What made you decide to attend today’s conference?’, or ‘What is your favourite presentation of the symposium thus far?’ are more than acceptable ice-breaking questions.

*Don’t be afraid to approach well-known individuals. Believe in your value as a potential connection and harness their curiosity about your research to make relevant but engaging conversation.

*Following up with people you meet at networking events: A friendly reminder about where you met and what you were conversing about may be enough for them to remember you, even if they don’t remember your face. It’s acceptable to politely follow-up every few months and to share interesting research in your field or upcoming events to keep your connection alive.

As an Australian Research Council funded Industrial Transformation Training Centre, we are always looking to develop the skills of our team to ensure their research make real-world impacts, and to strengthen their career readiness. What a great way to prepare for our 2022 Research Symposium #ITTC2022ResSym, which kicks off tomorrow.

On the 20th of November Peter Pivonka our Centre Deputy Director and Program 1 Lead attended the official opening of the ARC Training Centre for M3D Innovation at ANU.

By using cutting edge micro-CT imaging, reconstruction, analysis and visualisation methods developed at The Australian National University, researchers can probe, analyse, model and reconstruct the 3D structure of material samples at the metre scale with resolutions down to a few hundred nanometres to garner a deep understanding of the structure of materials at multiple scales.

With our program 1 team developing computational frameworks for modelling shoulder function, we are excited to explore the implications for 3D modelling in orthopaedics at our centre, with the visit highlight being their amazing large scale microCT device. We hope to collaborate with the centre in future and to promote knowledge sharing between a one of our fellow Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centres.

One aspect of particular interest to our centre’s research is their work with Micro-CT imaging and their new large scale device. Micro-CT imaging is a 3D imaging technique that utilizes X-rays to see inside an object, slice by slice.

Micro-CT, also called microtomography or micro computed tomography, is similar to hospital CT or “CAT” scan imaging but on a small scale with greatly increased resolution. Samples can be imaged with pixel sizes as small as 100 nanometers and objects can be scanned as large as 200 millimeters in diameter.

Some of our PhD students such as Mr Ahmed Sewify are currently working on an automatic ultrasound imaging-based tomography of the shoulder to track bony structures in real-time. Although using different imaging tools, the centre of M3D Innovation’s advancements could be a huge game changer in how we at the centre go about creating our own 3D models and how we then can apply them for use in the orthopaedics industry.

We wish the team at M3D all the best for their launch and for a successful first year.

Image: Large  scale microCT device

The centre is proud to announce that centre post-doctoral fellow Dr Laith Alzubaidi has been awarded a REDI Fellowship under MTPConnect’s REDI (Researcher Exchange & Development in Industry) Program.

Laith will spend 8 months working with Brisbane-based med-tech company Akunah to help surgeons decide on the best treatment plan for a patient using his expertise in machine and deep learning. Laith will then return to complete his post-doc position with the Centre, brining newly acquired skills and knowledge in industry-based research and development.

Dr. Alzubaidi with Adj. Prof and Dr Ashish Gupta, orthopaedic shoulder sub-specialist from Akunah

Akunah is committed to same vision of personalised patient care through improved use of developing Technologies and provides complex and revision surgical case planning to provide better outcomes pre, post and intraoperatively.

The Redi Fellowship program is strongly aligned with our Training Centre & the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Program – aiming to connect researchers, clinicians, and sector professionals with industry to drive greater collaboration between industry and research and enable growth of Australia’s medical products sector.

From the ARC Training Centre for Joint Biomechanics congratulations to our Post-doc Dr Laith Alzubaidi and Dr Edmund Pickering from the Centre for Biomedical Technologies (CBT) and affiliate centre researcher who will undertake his fellowship with Stryker R&D Lab in Brisbane.

We thank MTPConnect, one of our key government partners for recognizing their substantial research contributions to the fields of deep learning and biomedical engineering.

Our 2022 Research Symposium was a fantastic event for all academic nodes of the training centre to meet.

For the first time on the 24th of November we welcomed our UNSW post-docs and PhD students Miss Yilan (Olivia) Zhang, Mr Hossein Ahmadi, and Dr. Bart Bolsterlee to campus.

Yilan’s PhD project aims to develop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols and analysis pipelines for automated reconstruction of shoulder anatomy, whilst Hossein’s PhD project is to develop a 3D finite element model of the shoulder muscles to examine the effects of soft tissue tensioning and muscle activation on joint loading and joint stability.

This visit marked the second time the teams were able to connect and collaborate in person above the monthly team meetings and workshops held online, after our centre’s initial visit in March 2022 from our QUT (Queensland University of Technology) team (Ms Maddie McIntyre, Dr Wolbert van den Hoorn, Mr Maxence Lavaill and Prof Peter Pivonka) to NeuRA and UNSW for the first time.

As intestate travel restrictions lifted and borders opened up after a lengthy closure due to the worldwide pandemic, it was a wonderful opportunity for the team to meet and attend the Shoulder & Elbow Society of Australia (SESA) Biennial Conference (Sydney) together.

With many collaborative projects underway, we hope to further collaborate with Prof. Lynne Bilston who is also co-lead of Program  2 on surgical robotics and the rest of the NeuRA and UNSW team, particularly on the recently awarded seed grants where Dr Bart Bolsterlee was successfully awarded as a grant CI.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next team meeting and training workshop in 2023.

 

From November 10- 11 2022, a delegation of centre students and CIs attended the annual Centre for Biotechnologies (CBT) conference at the Queensland University of Technology’s Kelvin Grove campus.

Following the welcome to country presented by our elder-in-residence, Gregory Egert (Uncle Cheg), the conference was officially welcomed by D/Prof. Christopher Barner-Kowollik, the QUT Senior deputy vice-chancellor and vice president of research and Centre Director, Prof. Travis Klein who is also a chef Investigator within our ARC Industrial Transformative Training Centre for Joint Biomechanics.

As CBT are one of our main collaborators when it comes to providing biomedical technology seminars, events, and workshops; we were delighted to be invited to highlight the achievements of the centre from the last 12 months.

On day 1 Centre post-doc Dr. Laith Alzubaidi presented their scientific talk on ‘Deep Transfer Learning for Shoulder Abnormality Detection Using X-ray Images.’ Dr. Alzubaidi provided insight into the application of deep learning ai as a powerful technique to diagnose medical images for faster and more accurate detection of soft tissue and skeletal abnormalities. One of the biggest hurdles to using deep learning algorithms in the field of medical imaging diagnosis is the requirement to use hundreds of thousands of images as training data to ensure accuracy of the algorithm. Dr Alzubaidi demonstrated an increase in accuracy of 99.2% with model training and removal of algorithm biases, a fantastic result showing much promise towards the development of using AI for quicker, more accurate diagnosis.

We also enjoyed seeing the contributions of our affiliate PhD students Mr Alexander Lee-Medland, and Miss Natalia Mühl Castoldi, with their successful poster displays.

On day 2, our Deputy Director Prof Peter Pivonka and postdoctoral fellow Dr Wolbert van den Hoorn presented our research achievements during the ‘ARC Training Centres Session’ as chaired by Prof. Klein. Wolly delved into one of our fascinating projects conducted together with UQ and investigating how the central nervous system controls shoulder muscle function. And Peter highlighted the broad range of scientific fields that come together through our Centre to work together on collectively solving some of the major challenges currently facing industry and clinicians in treating shoulder conditions.

We were in great company presenting alongside fellow Australian Research Council ITTCs ARC Training Centre for M3D Innovation, CTET: Cell & Tissue Engineering Technologies ARC Centre and Australian Cobotics Centre.

Nothing puts a smile on our faces like seeing the team networking and sharing their expertise with colleagues, industry and the wider QUT (Queensland University of Technology) research community. On behalf of the ITTC-JB team, thank-you to the conference organisers for a wonderful event.

(L to R) Miss Laura Meszaros, Ms Maddie McIntyre (Centre Manager), Dr Edmund Pickering Pickering, Mr Alex Lee-Medland, Miss Natalia Mühl Castoldi, Mr Maxence Lavaill, Miss Rosalee Armitage, Mr Corey Miller, and Dr Wolbert van den Hoorn engaging with the Centre for Biomedical Technologies grant winner, HDR, and early career researcher sessions.

Congratulations to our centre Director, Prof. Yuantong Gu on his election to the national Biomedical College Board – Engineers Australia!

The Biomedical College is the peak representative body for biomedical engineering professionals in Australia, and sets standards of practice within biomedical engineering and provide mechanisms to help attain these standards.

The board comprised of 10 leaders, often CEOs or Managing Directors, from industry in the biomedical, mechanical, electrical, chemical and materials engineering fields.

Prof. Gu’s 2023 election marks a fantastic achievement for the QUT (Queensland University of Technology) and for #engineering.

We here at The ARC ITTC for Joint Biomechanics cannot wait to see your contributions towards Australia’s biomedical engineering future with further #mentoring, benchmarking of high standards for professional practice, aid delivery, and further partnership development as part of the board’s remit.

For further information on the #biomedical college please visit:

https://lnkd.in/ghUW-rZP
https://lnkd.in/g5tbvziX

At the ITTC for Joint Biomechanics, all of our team have the opportunity to spend time on the ground at our industry partner Greenslopes Private Hospital and at Dr Ken Cutbush’s  clinic at Brisbane private Hospital to better understand the clinical environment in which new technologies are implemented.

Dr Gupta and his team are leading the way in developing and applying modelling and visualisation technologies to pre-operative planning and clinical decision-making. Seeing the hands-on use of 3D models, and HoloLens 2 technology in the operating theatre to get real-time insight into graft and implant placement was eye-opening!

On the 10th of October our operations team consisting of our Centre Manager Ms Maddie McIntyre and Centre Administration Officer, Miss Rosa Armitage visited Dr Ashish Gupta’s Greenslopes Private Hospital clinic to observe two shoulder arthroplasty surgeries performed by Dr Ashish Gupta and his surgical fellow Roberto Pareyon.

Similarly on the 8th of November, our students Miss Yuyao (Amy) Ma (PhD, based at the The University of Queensland) and visiting MSc student Mr Andrea Sgarzi (from the Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna) had a wonderful experience in theatre with one of our key clinical leaders Dr. Kenneth Cutbush and surgeon Dr. Freek Hollman at Brisbane Private Hospital.

The Experience highlighted for them what happens in real practice and how the clinical context, challenges, and opportunities can best inform their research going forward. Amy and Andrea highly recommended the observation experience to all those visiting the centre to gain multi-disciplinary insight into multiple arthroscopic procedures and reverse total shoulder replacements.

Sounds like a truly engaging opportunity going beyond computer models to the engaging world of surgery and applied biomedical engineering. As we are drivers of translational research for the orthopaedics industry, we are uniquely situated to offer such developmental activities with aims to expand upon such opportunities in 2023.