Clinician scientist seeks to redefine “minimally invasive”

Achieving a spinal fusion or regenerating a diseased spinal disk with a simple injection may sound to some like science fiction, but Francis H. Shen, MD, is working to make such surgery-free treatments possible—with the help of a Clinician Scientist Award from the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF). Dr.

Clinical use of platelet-rich plasma in orthopaedics

Barbara D. Boyan, PhD; Zvi Schwartz, DMD, PhD; Thomas E. Patterson, PhD; George Muschler, MD

The increasing use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in orthopaedics presents significant opportunities—as well as significant questions—about appropriate clinical applications for this developing therapy. PRP was initially developed in the 1970s; recent technologic advances have enabled the administration of PRP to move from the hospital setting into outpatient and ambulatory surgical centers…even into physicians’ offices.

Translating science from the benchtop to the bedside

Yusuf Khan, PhD; William M. Mihalko, MD, PhD

What are the barriers between the research laboratory and the clinical setting, and how can we get past them? An aging population in the United States is increasing the demand for new, innovative treatments for orthopaedic ailments that most significantly affect function and activity later in life.