Smart Knee Implant Tracks Patient’s Progress for 10 Years after Surgery

Knee replacement surgeries are generally considered highly effective. However, it has been observed that a number of patients are not completely happy with the surgical outcomes, and some even experience complications that may necessitate additional surgeries. Timely and accurate functional data could assist in early problem detection and potentially reduce complications in these complex cases. Now, a groundbreaking smart knee implant gathers crucial kinematic data metrics and provides a direct view of patient-specific data for up to a decade.

Zimmer Biomet’s (Warsaw, IN, USA) Persona IQ is a first-to-world smart knee implant that captures relevant gait metrics including functional knee range of motion (ROM), qualified step count, walking speed, cadence, distance traveled and stride length. Using sensor technology, Persona IQ helps medical professionals gather specific data on patients as part of ongoing monitoring. The smart sensor records data multiple times a day, processes it overnight, and makes it available for review the next day. For at least ten years, this implant allows doctors to keep tabs on their patients' activity levels between regular office visits, ensuring continuous care following total knee replacement surgery.

Image: Persona IQ is a first-to-world smart knee implant that captures relevant gait metrics (Photo courtesy of Zimmer Biomet)

Patients themselves can also benefit from this technology by actively following their post-operative metrics, which promotes better engagement with their recovery process. The implant makes it simple for both healthcare providers and patients to access long-term data via an easy-to-use interface on the mymobility Care Management Platform. This platform enables remote access to crucial post-surgery data, making it easier to monitor post-TKA activity levels between visits to the doctor's office.

Moreover, Persona IQ now comes equipped with Canary Quantiles Recovery Curves, a feature that enables a more comprehensive and detailed analysis of patient recovery trends. By aggregating multiple data points across the patient population using Persona IQ, these recovery curves offer frequent and objective collective data, allowing a comparison of individual patient activity and knee movement against others in terms of age, gender, and time since the operation. This first-of-its-kind monitoring tool gives clinicians daily insights into functional data, helping them decide whether to adjust in-person evaluations or update care plans within the year following the surgery.

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