WHAT: the 12th Annual International Symposium for Technology in Arthroplasty
WHEN: Thursday, September 23 through Saturday, September 25.
WHERE: Swissotel, 323 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago
WHY: Orthopedic surgeons and physicians will discuss the latest methods to repair hips, knees and shoulders using innovative methods such as virtual reality and robotic surgery.
BACKGROUND: Virtual reality and robotic technology for joint replacement may be the future of arthroplastic surgery, but they are being discussed this week at a conference in Chicago.
Orthopedic physicians from around the world will congregate at the Swissotel starting tomorrow to discuss the latest treatments in arthroplasty - the use of artificial joints to repair broken hips, knees and shoulders. The symposium is sponsored by Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center.
"The symposium will focus on emerging technologies and scientifically documented patient outcome studies," said Rick Sumner, PhD, conference program chair and professor, departments of anatomy and orthopedic surgery at Rush. Two such sessions worth noting will be held on Thursday, September 23:
1) Robotic Surgery by Dr. Andre Buaer, Marbella High Care, Marbella, Spain, will be held from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Invented more than seven years ago by a veterinarian for use on hip replacements in dogs, robotic surgery for hip replacement has been successfully performed on more than 4,000 humans and may ultimately become more popular in the future.
2) Virtual Reality and the Visible Human for Orthopedics Education and Research, Victor M. Spitzer, Ph.D, Center for Human Simulation, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colo., will be held from 3:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The Visible Human has provided countless resources for physicians, anatomists and researchers for cross sections and 3D renderings for the past five years. Essentially, a cadaver was surgically sliced thin in order that photo realistic images could be scanned and then used for training. The University of Colorado School of Medicine has used this technology to develop a diagnostic arthroscopy simulator for the knee.
Contact onsite: Dr. Rick Sumner. For questions about the conference, including a program and abstracts, call Chris Martin at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, 312-942-7820 or pager 312-689-1113.