Even though robotics has been around orthopedics for a few decades, AI is changing the way that robotics can be utilized.
AI is starting to have surgeons approach things with a different perspective and ask more questions about how things have been done in the past.
Collecting data through AI and smart implants are giving surgeons real-time access and insights to how patients are recovering and can lead to better outcomes, according to this orthopedic surgeon.
Michael Seem, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Winchester (Va.) Orthopaedic Associates, part of The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics, recently connected with Becker’s to share how robotics, AI and smart implants are all working in tandem and how they will continue to improve orthopedic care.
Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What are you seeing and keeping an eye on in terms of robotics in the orthopedic industry?
Dr. Michael Seem: Robotics has been around for almost 30 years. In the early 2000s it really began and essentially the goal of robotic surgery was to improve precision, improve accuracy, hopefully with the goal of improving patient outcomes. The early 2010s is when it really kind of started taking off. But even then, less than 1% of all total joints were done robotically. There are predictions that by 2030, upwards of 50% and more of all total knee replacements will be done robotically. There’s certainly a shift to change and I think a lot of that is being driven by AI and its analytics.
Q: What role does AI play in tandem with robotics?
MS: In the last three to five years or so, AI has really come onto the scene, which can help in every facet of orthopedics and total joints, especially. With AI, we are starting to look at things a little bit differently. Historically, knee replacements have had this one-size-fits-all approach, which we don’t know if it’s right. We have good data for the past 50 years that most people do well, but can we do better? Those are the kind of questions we’re asking now, and those are the questions that AI is going to help us answer.
We are now collecting this objective data from surgery. We know exactly where we put these components during surgery, and we’re analyzing that. We’re reviewing patient outcomes and how well patients are moving. We now have things like wearable devices that can identify how patients are moving after surgery.
Some companies are going a step further with smart knee implants. It’s an attachment to the knee implant that I’m using, and it gives me information in real time, about patients’ recovery, on their cadence, their range of motion, and really tells me how well patients are doing without ever picking up a phone or seeing them in clinic. With these large companies collecting and gathering all of this information, we’re going to be able to analyze these data sets much more quickly. With that, we can essentially create a personalized pathway for each patient as soon as they walk in the door.
Q: What data points and insights are you gaining from AI and smart implants?
MS: Now that we have these smart implants, every morning, I can wake up, log on to my computer and see data on patients after surgery. We now have enough data to make associations with this. When it first came out, we didn’t know what to do with it, but now that we have these machine learning algorithms, we’re creating a growth curve for recovery. We now have a growth curve where we can tell if patients are within that recovery curve or if they’re an outlier. I can pick up a phone and call a patient and say, “Hey, I think you’re doing too much. Let’s take a couple of days off, or it looks like you haven’t been able to walk very far or very fast.” It’s going to be pretty transformative to see in the next few years what correlations we’re finding with these patients.
Q: Is there a data point that you hope is integrating into AI or smart implants within the next few years?
MS: There’s not going to be a single data point. I think we know enough, and we’ve been doing orthopedics and total joints for long enough to know who has a good outcome. I think with all this information we’re gathering, pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative, especially with these smart implants, we are going to develop a feedback loop where we know exactly which philosophy will work for each patient. So essentially, a patient can walk into the clinic and the patient and surgeon can decide together exactly what plan they will have and what their recovery will look like. I think that is going to be very powerful.
