Let’s go back in history to look at five game-changing innovations in orthopedics and see how they originated. These five changed orthopedics forever. All of these crazy technology ideas have become routine practice today.
As you read these, take note of the patterns. The innovation pathway is always...
an entrepreneurial surgeon sees a clinical need for a new technology,
then monkeys around with prototypes,
then collaborates with a device expert or company to bring forth the first commercial products.
#1 Arthroscopy
In 1962, Dr Masaki Watanabe, a Japanese teaching surgeon, performed the first arthroscopic menisectomy using the arthroscopic instruments he developed. The patient was a 17-year-old boy who twisted his knee playing basketball. Watanabe debrided the flap tear of the medial meniscus. The patient went home the same day. In 6 weeks, he was back playing basketball. A pioneer in the development of the modern arthroscope with fiberoptic illumination, Watanabe is widely considered the “father of arthroscopy.” His arthroscope was a specialized endoscope, derived from a rudimentary cystoscope. The humble orthopaedic surgeon from Japan rarely spoke o...
