Can ConforMIS Recharge Resurfacing with Custom Implants

Article preview reprinted from IN VIVO -  October/November, 2009  

Privately held ConforMIS Inc. is reintroducing customization to the large joint. It launched two new resurfacing tools this year and hopes to introduced a third, called iTotal, next year as a potential alternative to total knee implants. Read more...

Can ConforMIS Recharge Resurfacing with Custom Implants

Article preview reprinted from IN VIVO -  October/November, 2009  

Can ConforMIS Recharge Resurfacing with Custom Implants

Each year, more than 600,000 people undergo either partial or total knee replacement. Each one of those patients is a different size, a different shape, and suffers from different degrees of knee damage. Privately held ConforMIS asks: shouldn't their implants be just as unique?

** ConforMIS this year launched two new knee resurfacing tools, iUni and iDuo, reintroducing the concept of creating customized orthopedic implants for patients who simply might not need to have their entire joint replaced. 

** ConforMIS is hoping next year to launch iTotal, a resurfacing implant for patients with tri-compartmental osteoarthritis, if it obtains FDA approval. Company officials believe the iTotal device could be an appealing alternative for many patients whose only option today would be total knee replacement.

**The core of the ConforMIS story is its iFit technology—a software-enabled design process that converts CT and MR data into implants that are precisely sized and shaped to conform to the unique 3D topography of an individual joint.

**The concept sounds appealing, can ConforMIS expand on that model to challenge its large orthopedic rivals for national—or even global—market prominence?

Conventional wisdom advises us not to judge a book by its cover. But that's exactly what Philipp Lang, MD, wanted potential investors to do when he started his company, ConforMIS Inc. As part of the materials used in his investor road show, Lang carried along a tiny box that once held his infant daughter's shoes. At the start of a meeting, Lang would set the box down in the center of the conference table and explain to potential investors how the contents of that pink and white box could one day replace the stacks of tabletop-sized metal trays currently used in full and partial knee surgeries.

ConforMIS' secret wasn't in the size of its implants, but in how few elements the surgeon needed to perform knee replacement surgery. Lang sold investors an entirely novel method of designing and manufacturing knee implants—novel to the orthopedic implant industry at least. ConforMIS sought to replace the traditional process of mass manufacturing and packaging of knee implants with a precise system using computed tomography scans, proprietary software and patent-protected manufacturing regimens to create a unique implant for each patient.

Actually, what ConforMIS is trying to do isn't really all that new to orthopedic implants. Fifty years ago, the total joint market was largely a local business, with small machine shops serving surgeons with implants designed for their individual use. With the boom of the total joint market in the last quarter of the 20th century, however, the business model in orthopedics changed fundamentally. Suddenly, to serve this exploding market and fully realize its potential, the industry went from local to global, introducing dynamics of both consolidation and mass production that enabled ever larger companies to produce more and more implants and serve customers across the globe. Still, it is an indication of orthopedics' roots that senior executives today still debate the merits of critical mass and scale, even as the industry has come to be dominated by a handful of large, international players selling largely standardized, off-the-shelf implants.

- Tom Salemi

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Companies mentioned in this article:

ArthroSurface Inc.

Biomet Inc.

ConforMIS Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

DePuy Orthopaedics Inc.

MAKO Surgical Corp.

Stryker Corp.

Wright Medical Group Inc.

Wright Medical Technology Inc.

Zimmer Holdings Inc.

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