Designing Orthopedic Implants

You might try going to school. That's usually the way it's done.

If you want someone to give you the information in 5 easy steps, forget it. Work for it like I'd have to do.

Regardless, if you build an orthopedic implant, be prepared to run it past the FDA for about 5 years and several million dollars.

Vermin is an OPTIMIST!

milo

Attend college. Major in Mechanical Engineering.

Go through medical school.

Do an orthopedic residency.

Become board certified.

Find a VC to support your work.

Hello,

You can work with an orthopedic surgeon who is trying to improve implant designs and or the tooling that he needs during surgery. If you are a mechanically inclined fellow with a good imagination and a machine shop available to you, you are on your way.

Be careful as the surgeon may, more than likely, be the initiator of the concept or he may bring the problem to you. Learn from him. As you learn about surgery and human anatomy you can design some tooling or implants that you recognize a need for. Be ethical and you may prosper or at least have helped mankind.

Be very careful to go to a reputable Patent attorney - it will be worth the $20K you will spend. Make sure the attorney does not engage in the unethical business of filing for blocking patents. This is the practice of taking the idea that you have brought to him and jumping a stage or so ahead of your thought and development process and filing a patent built on the novelty that you have brought to him. This is not paranoia it happens. A few smart patent attorneys brainstorm your idea and leapfrog to where you are heading. Have a development agreement with him/her (the surgeon) that covers your inventiveness as he will certainly cover himself.

It can be the most satisfying work that you will ever do and is worth ever minute you assist or ideate in the development of implants. It can be lucrative for the few who design the next best thing but for Joe Sixpack, it can be a good way to improve peoples lives and make a comfortable living. Dr Jarvic the inventor of the Jarvic heart was a part-time machinist as he went through college in Italy.

Become an expert with implant materials and tackle it from that avenue. This may entail polymer science and or metalurgical science and a Biomedical background. Coating on stents is a big field.

Orthopedic surgeons use "butcher and carpentry tools", and this came from a surgeon that I have a patent with, for minimally invasive back surgery tooling that I designed. No! I will never be rich from it but it gives me some bragging rights as a 'not so smart' pauper as it took ~5 years in the patenting cycle. I could have 'passed' in that span.

GO for it!

Any implant has to withstand sterilization. Also the implant is surrounded by blood/plasma and in a Cardiac Pacemaker where the leads make a mechanical connection you must have o-rings to keep blood out. Screws would most likely be titanium if it were iron the body uses iron like in a vitamin. Titanium is not used by the body which would over time cause corrosion. So all materials used must be not used by the body and able to withstand years of being implanted. Then you have the FDA that must approve your device. It is a manufacturing nightmare with Cardiac Pacemakers, ICDs, Heart Valves, Pacing leads. You should check out a medical company site that do implants of all types Medtronic, Boston Scientific, St Jude Medical Inc. (I worked there) and this will educate you on real life applications of implants. I do not know of a ortho company but try Google and these other sites for what is involved to implant devices. And learn how the FDA works with implanted devices.