In recent years, the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies have gradually infiltrated into all aspects of orthopedic medicine, promoting the birth and evolution of new orthopedics in the new era, and likewise giving traditional orthopedics new concepts, new connotations, new scopes, and new means of diagnosis and treatment, as well as rehabilitation modes. These will have a profound impact on both orthopedic surgeons and orthopedic patients.
Common orthopedic diseases have changed
Orthopedics is a discipline that specializes in the study of the musculoskeletal system and the treatment of injuries and diseases of this system. With the changes in time and society and the emergence of new technologies, the spectrum of injuries and diseases in the orthopedic system has changed significantly.
Bone and joint tuberculosis, osteomyelitis, poliomyelitis and other diseases have decreased significantly, while the trauma caused by traffic accidents has increased significantly; with the increase in the proportion of elderly population in the society, the fracture caused by senile osteoporosis, arthropathy has increased year by year; by the influence of environmental factors, bone tumors, rheumatoid arthritis increased accordingly, etc.
At the same time, the discipline specializes in the study of skeletal muscle system and treatment of this system.
At the same time, orthopedic diagnostic and treatment techniques have undergone important changes in recent decades, with minimally invasive techniques, the application of new materials, regenerative techniques, navigation techniques, and robotics strongly contributing to the rapid development of the discipline.
New interdisciplinary: digital orthopedics
The combination of computer science and orthopedic science has led to the formation of a new interdisciplinary - digital orthopedics, which involves human anatomy, three-dimensional geometry, biomechanics, materials science, informatics, electronics and mechanical engineering. It involves human anatomy, three-dimensional geometry, biomechanics, material science, informatics, electronics and mechanical engineering. Specifically, it includes: orthopedic finite element analysis, orthopedic digital anatomy (3D reconstruction), orthopedic virtual simulation surgery, orthopedic rapid prototyping technology, orthopedic reverse engineering technology, computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technology, preoperative planning, computer-aided orthopedic navigation, orthopedic telesurgery and orthopedic robotic surgery.
These new technologies have gradually been widely used in various subspecialties of orthopedics. New theories and technologies have spawned changes in the division of clinical specialties, making them more rational and efficient.
In fact, a part of the more mature artificial intelligence and its related technologies (including intelligent computer software and mechanical and electronic devices) have begun to enter or explore into the clinical application, such as computer-aided detection, auxiliary diagnostic systems, wearable devices and remote sensing telemetry systems, bioinformatics technology.
In addition, a large number of new modern medical technologies based on computer or IT technology have also continued to enter the clinical use, such as genetic diagnosis and gene manipulation technology, biomedical engineering technology, new drug synthesis technology (including the design and manufacture of drug molecules), 3D printing technology, AR/VR/MR technology and so on.
From the perspective of the history of medical development, scientific and technological progress and the use of new tools often lead to technological progress or even a technological revolution, forming new disciplines or even new business models, and thus promoting the development of productivity. In a world where the incidence of orthopedic diseases is increasing, precision treatment is the future direction of orthopedic surgery.
Artificial Intelligence: Breathing Life into Orthopaedics
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the ability to learn and innovate as well as the ability to reason and make decisions through neural network systems, software algorithms, and so on, and can be applied to many clinical scenarios.
The examination of medical imaging data is closely related to the diagnosis of orthopedic diseases, and clinicians have to interpret CT, MRI, and X-ray optical images of a large number of patients, which greatly tests human intelligence and physical strength. Today, the results of the reading robot have reached a professional technical level, and the reading speed is faster than humans. Artificial intelligence can apply image recognition technology and massive empirical data technology to assist orthopedic surgeons in auxiliary processing by learning empirical knowledge, which improves the efficiency of orthopedic surgeons and reduces the misdiagnosis and omission of certain diseases.
Like the learning ability of AI to assist orthopedic doctors, the learning ability of AI can also assist orthopedic nursing staff. By centralizing and aggregating nursing knowledge, nursing cases, and nursing experience into an AI system, big data on orthopedic patient care can be created. When a new patient is admitted to the ward and the case characteristics of the new patient are entered, the AI can quickly recommend the best care program for the nursing staff.
In addition, the new era of care model needs to gradually realize precision care, which brings more work pressure to healthcare workers. The application of robots to the hospital environment can effectively assist nursing staff to carry out some of the work, so that healthcare workers from the heavy single work to liberate in order to better serve patients. For example, dietary care robots, item transfer robots, patient handling robots, etc. will be increasingly used in clinical work.
Orthopedic robots: a good helper in the operating room
At present, orthopedic robots have been widely used in spine surgery, knee replacement, hip replacement and other operations. A number of domestic universities, a number of scholars, a number of companies have carried out a series of intelligent orthopaedic industrialization exploration, domestic orthopaedic surgical robots in difficult orthopaedic surgery on the automatic navigation technology has successfully realized the running, running, is gradually moving towards the lead.
In summary, the new technological revolution has brought a new impact and a new revolution to the traditional disciplines, which will inevitably butterfly and recreate the new disciplinary chain; the new technological revolution will inevitably reshape and interpret the new orthopaedic sciences in the new era, in order to adapt to the wave of the new technological revolution, and to promote the discipline to always be at the forefront of the development of science and technology.
In order to help the high-quality development of the health industry, the "Medical Vision" column will focus on the advanced concepts and excellent practices in various fields of medicine, create a high-end think tank of doctors, capture the innovative highlights, condense the development of ideas, and enhance the ability of governance.
Curator: Fang Tong
Author: Pei Guoxian, President of the Third Affiliated Hospital of the Southern University of Science and Technology