Most adults can choose to track their physical activity with a wearable device, such as a smartphone or watch, so it should not be surprising that a total knee replacement can capture this data also.
Dr. Korey Partenheimer, an orthopedic hip and knee replacement specialist with SSM Health’s SLUCare Physicians, has begun offering this smart implant technology to some of his knee patients in the past year.
“A small sensor in the knee replacement captures step data and range of motion, which are key pieces of information that we watch as a measure of progress after a patient has knee replacement,” he said.
Dr. Partenheimer normally sees his patients in the office a few weeks after joint replacement surgery and then a few months after surgery to check their progress. With data from the smart implant, he can monitor a patient’s progress day-to-day for the first few weeks, and then periodically for as long as 15 years after surgery.
“We don’t have to wait for the patient to come to the office for a follow-up appointment if we see that activity level has changed dramatically, which could indicate the patient isn’t moving as much,” he said. “We call the patient and find out if they have more pain or swelling than usual, or if their lower daily activity level is due to another reason such as travel.”
Data is captured by a small sensor at the base of the implant in the tibia (shin bone) and then uploaded to an app while the patient is on a home Wi-Fi network. The patient can see the uploaded data on the smartphone app and the surgeon can view the data in the office and monitor the activity at regular intervals.
“When patients can see their data on the phone app, it helps them be aware of their activity and compare how they are doing to the previous week or to people at their age and stage of recovery across the nation,” he said.
Surgeons are using this data to monitor patients’ progress after surgery, but also to see when they detect changes years after patients have fully recovered, which might indicate a problem that can be addressed earlier than the patient would notice.
“The value of data continues to broaden the use of technology in medicine by offering surgeons and other medical professionals an opportunity to intervene with care earlier than waiting for the patient to report a concern to the provider,” Dr. Partenheimer said.
He anticipates that activity tracking with smart implants will be available to patients of all ages in the next few years as industry adapts to this rapidly growing use of technology.
