Prestigious Klee Family Foundation Prize 2020 Awarded for Outstanding Scientific Work Identifying Patient-Specific Approach as Better Way to Optimize Knee Implant Design
BILLERICA, Mass., May 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Conformis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CFMS) congratulates Dr. Malte Asseln for winning the prestigious Klee Prize 2020 for his dissertation and computer-and-image-based workflow on the optimization of knee implant design – “Morphological and Functional Analysis of the Knee Joint for Implant Design Optimization.”
As reported in Medizin and Technik on May 6, 2020, Dr. Asseln’s results show that more knee implant sizes are required than are currently manufactured by off-the-shelf knee implant manufacturers, so patient-specific or better-tailored solutions are a promising approach to increase the 70 percent industry-wide patient satisfaction with artificial knee joints that he has observed.
Dr. Asseln concluded that one of the main drivers of the 30 percent industry-wide dissatisfaction with knee implants is the design of standard implants, which takes insufficient account of patient-specific biomechanics.
“I am always pleased to see third-party scientific research validate my belief in the inherent superiority of the patient-specific knee implant design approach over standard, off-the-shelf knee design to eliminate joint pain relief,” said Mark Augusti, President and CEO of Conformis, Inc. “Congratulations to Dr. Asseln!”
As part of his analysis, Dr. Asseln developed methods for generating parameterized surface models of articular surfaces to enable systematic shape variations. He also developed a patient-specific biomechanical simulation model of the lower extremity and an experimental bench test to analyze the relationship between design parameters and knee function. Further, he used the outer geometric dimensions of the knee joint to calculate a sufficient number of implant sizes.
For his morphological analysis of the natural knee joint, Dr. Asseln built up a comprehensive database with geometric features and evaluated them. He used a database of 831 patient records, from which 59 geometric features were extracted.
Most traits showed statistically significant gender differences. After Dr. Asseln classified and normalized the features according to the direction of their measurement (i.e. width and depth), it became apparent that, after normalization, there were large inter-individual deviations, which indicates that patient-specific design solutions would be the only way to accommodate for these differences.
About The Klee Prize and the VDE Association
The Klee Prize is an annual prize awarded by the German Society for Biomedical Engineering at the VDE Association and the Klee Family Foundation. The prize is worth 5,000 euros and is awarded in a competition for outstanding scientific work in biomedical engineering as an interdisciplinary subject.
With 36,000 members (including 1,300 companies) the VDE Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies is one of the largest technical and scientific associations in Europe. VDE works in the fields of information technology, energy, medical engineering, microelectronics, micro and nanotechnology and automation. VDE is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and has main branches in Brussels, Belgium and Berlin, Germany.
About Conformis, Inc.
Conformis is a medical technology company that uses its proprietary iFit Image-to-Implant technology platform to develop, manufacture, and sell joint replacement implants and instruments that are individually sized and shaped, which we refer to as personalized, individualized, or sometimes as customized, to fit each patient’s unique anatomy. Conformis offers a broad line of sterile, personalized knee and hip implants and single-use instruments delivered to hospitals. In clinical studies, the Conformis iTotal CR knee replacement system demonstrated superior clinical outcomes, including better function and greater patient satisfaction, compared to traditional, off-the-shelf implants. Conformis owns or exclusively in-licenses issued patents and pending patent applications that cover personalized implants and patient-specific instrumentation for all major joints.
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