Consensus Orthopedics, a company that provides proven and reliable total joint implants and instruments to the global market, has partnered up with IBM Watson Health to develop a wearable device called TracPatch.
“Consensus Orthopedics has been around for about 25 years. It’s a boutique, orthopedic implant company (hip and knee) and about 3 years ago, we realized that the healthcare industry was changing. So, we embarked on this journey of developing a wearable. And, having this deep understanding of orthopedics and total joint replacement, we were able to come up with this device that we could now put on the patient both pre-operably and post-operably and really be able to see what’s happening to the knee,” says Curt Weidenhoefer, President of Consensus Orthopedics.
What’s missing in today’s healthcare is the ability to monitor what’s actually happening in the OR and in the patients at home. And, before TracPatch, nothing was gathering that type of data; everything was subjective. When the patient came into the office, the way he answered the questions that the surgeons was asking them to prepare him if he did or did not need a total knee, was subjective. This is the first time that we have the ability to gather real-time data of what’s happening at home.
“All of this is coming to light. When we take this type of data and we mix it with the power of Watson Health, we can change medicine,” said Michael Droege, Vice president of global business development at Consensus Orthopedics.
Tracpatch is the leading surface sensor technology for degenerative bone disease. Gathering real-time big data across a nonspecific device platform combined with the power and cognitive learning of Watson Health is changing medicine.
TracPatch helps enable patients and healthcare providers to strive for exceptional post-surgical outcomes. Healthcare providers can now engage patients every day during their episode of care. Patients feel empowered to reach their recovery goals. With the use of smartphone technology and Internet of Things, TracPatch monitors key patient metrics allowing a surgeon to remotely monitor a patient’s recovery.
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“As an orthopedic surgeon for 25 years, I’ve had the opportunity to do thousands of total knee replacements, thousands of total hip replacements and hundreds of total shoulder replacements. The traditional model of how we follow those is good, but we do lose contact with the patient, and so in their post-operative course, sometimes we don’t always know what’s happening with them. TracPatch is a game changer because it’s the first orthopedic wearable medical device that allows me to have real-time data on that patient’s post-operative progress,” said Dr. Chris Leslie, Orthopedic surgeon and Medical Director, Consensus Orthopedics.
