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Orthopaedic work at MEM Research Center extends from bench to bedside and beyond
Modern successor to Prof. Maurice Müller’s work in Bern, center earned international reputation.
Editor’s note:
This is the second installment in our
series, Pioneer Clinics, about sites that made key contributions to orthopaedic
medicine.
The field of orthopaedics has long been tied to the renowned and respected clinical and basic science research tradition in Bern, Switzerland.
An example of how that tradition has continued is the Maurice E. Müller (MEM) Research Center for Orthopaedic Surgery. Its roots stretch back to Bernese orthopaedic leaders like Prof. Müller, who established the AO Foundation; Stephan M. Perren, MD, DSc, who continued Müller’s work from 1981 to 1988; and Perren’s successor from 1989 to 2003, Ernst B. Hunziker, PhD, who now heads the University of Bern ITI Research Institute for Dental and Skeletal Biology.
“The whole continuum of research in orthopaedics in Bern stems from its very old tradition in orthopaedics,” Max Aebi, MD, DHC, FRCSC, said.
Spirit of collaboration
Those familiar with Müller and his institute’s work may not be aware of the research done at the MEM Research Center. Almost completely revamped in 2003, “It is a think-tank for orthopaedic research and it has a systems approach to outcomes and patient satisfaction,” said David Seligson, MD, of Louisville, U.S.A., a member of the Orthopaedics Today Europe Editorial Board.
“The center has a young, brilliant faculty and an outstanding record of publication. The MEM Center represents the best in collaboration between orthopaedists, industry and a university,” he added.
The center, part of the medical faculty of the University of Bern, consists of two institutes run by Aebi and Lutz-Peter Nolte, PhD.
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Images: MEM Research Center |
Biomechanics research
Aebi, a clinician and researcher, directs the Institute for Evaluative Research in Orthopaedics (IEFO), dedicated to academic research in health technology assessment and outcomes evaluation. Nolte directs the Institute for Surgical Technology & Biomechanics (ISTB), responsible for biomechanics and surgical technology research.
In 2000, Aebi was invited to reorganize the MEM Foundation. He restructured a documentation/educational institute at the university — the part of the Müller Foundation that was known for its hip registry — into the IEFO.
“[It] was, in fact, Maurice Müller’s heartbeat because he was the first fellow in the world who established registries,” Aebi told Orthopaedics Today Europe.
“I proposed … that the university and foundation make a research center for orthopaedic surgery, from bench to bedside and beyond. … To my astonishment, the university accepted, agreed to fund it and basically gave endowments for 8 years to finance such a center.”
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Aebi and Nolte operate the “bench” portion of the business together, a basic science lab focused on spinal disc research, the emphasis of Aebi’s lab at McGill University in Montreal.
IEFO’s mission is helping advance and adapt musculoskeletal health in today’s changing health care environment. It has three subgroups — medical informatics and documentation, health technology assessment, and clinical epidemiology and evaluative clinical research — headed by Tony Ambrose, MSc, Andre Busato, DMV, and Urs Müller, MD, respectively.
One of their projects is running implant registries in cooperation with national governments and orthopaedic societies like the Spine Society of Europe.
Researchers also developed the MEMdoc (www.memdoc.com) portal on which all data for registries as well as a number of private studies are collected and analyzed.
“We are basically looking for the long-term data and to connect them with health economy,” to see if the technology makes sense and has a cost benefit, Aebi said.
Surgical technology
The center’s ISTB section arose from an existent biomechanics institute integrated into the university. Nolte, who ran a lab at Wayne State University in Detroit and invented major orthopaedic navigation technology, was tapped to head it.
Stephen Ferguson, PhD, heads the ISTB biomechanics division and two of three sub groups: orthopaedic biomechanics and tissue mechanobiology.
The computational bioengineering group performs finite element analysis simulations led by Philippe Büchler, PhD, a simulation expert.
Stefan Weber, PhD, heads the surgical technologies division, which includes smart surgical instrumentation, surgical navigation and medical image analysis subgroups led by Jens Kowal, PhD, Guoyan Zheng, PhD, and Mauricio Reyes, PhD, respectively. They work closely together, collaborating on population-specific optimization or design of orthopaedic implants, sometimes at the request of orthopaedic manufacturing companies.
“That, I think, is the nature of our work,” Nolte said.
In addition to conducting leading-edge computer-assisted surgery development and applications research, they are exploring using micro-sensors and actuators for “smart” surgical instrumentation.
Disc degeneration research
A key project of Ferguson’s group is treating disc degeneration from a mechanical and biological standpoint, but should they identify an intervention that later needs to be implanted by precision, “our computer-aided surgery group provides him with the gadget,” Nolte explained.
They are developing cement augmentation delivery systems for the spine that may have a better intraoperative feel and allow using higher viscosity cements.
The center has a philosophy of identifying and solving real-life problems that is embodied in its teaching, research and technology transfer.
“We are linked to the Swiss, European and sometimes international med tech industry. We address their needs and try to do that from the standpoint of a real clinical problem,” Nolte said.
For more information:
Reference:
- Max Aebi, MD, DHC, FRCSC, and Lutz-Peter Nolte, PhD, can be reached at University of Bern, MEM Research Center, Stauffacherstrasse 78, CH-3014 Bern, Switzerland; +41-31-631-5959. Prof. Aebi’s e-mail: max.aebi@MEMcenter.unibe.ch; Prof. Nolte’s e-mail: annelies.neuenschwander@MEMcenter.unibe.ch.
- David Seligson, MD, can be reached at the Department of Orthopaedics, University of Louisville, 530 South Jackson-ACB Third Floor Bridge, Louisville, KY 40202, U.S.A.; +1-502-896-0190; e-mail: seligson@louisville.edu.
- Information about the MEM Research Center can be found at www.memcenter.unibe.ch.