Well, This Is Taking Wearable to the Next Level

Imagine not wearing an Apple watch or Oura ring, but rather having an internal sensor that communicates your physiologic data back to your smart phone. This is being harnessed in total joint arthroplasty and in osseosurface electronics.

Total knee arthroplasty and sensors

Zimmer Biomet, in partnership with Canary Medical, has launched the Persona IQ TKA. The technology is facilitated through a tibial extension sensor technology that measures and determines range of motion, step count, walking speed and other gait metrics. Although interesting to data geeks, it remains to be seen if this is too close to big brother for patients to embrace in TKA and other applications.

Osseosurface electronics

Wireless, battery-free devices attached to the bone use different sensors to capture information about bone strain, thermography and optical stimulation. While initial work has been done to investigate animal models, just imagine using it in care protocols with difficult-to-heal fractures.