With the further breakthrough of science and technology, artificial intelligence assisted diagnosis and treatment may lead the new development trend in the field of orthopedics.
As one of the most high-incidence diseases in the entire orthopedic industry, the incidence of joint disease patients will continue to increase with the deepening of the aging of the Chinese population. As the ultimate treatment of joint diseases, artificial joint replacement surgery has irreplaceable and important value.
Dr. Zhang Yiling, Chairman of Nagaki Valley, said: "China performs more than one million joint replacement surgeries every year, growing at a rate of about 20% per year, which is a very large track.
However, the difficulty of artificial joint replacement surgery, the high precision requirements, and the long learning curve of doctors have seriously hindered the smooth development of joint replacement surgery by young doctors and grass-roots doctors in China. ”
Photo| Dr. Zhang Yiling, Chairman of Nagaki Valley (Source: Nagaki Valley)
In the past, when patients needed to do joint replacement surgery, most experts relied on their own clinical experience to plan surgery based on two-dimensional X-ray pictures, and since there was no visual surgical plan before surgery, the accuracy of surgery often depended on the expert's work experience.
For some doctors in city or county hospitals with a very small overall surgical volume, the surgical experience is relatively not very rich, and it is impossible to rely on experience to provide a basis for judgment, which will increase the risk of complications after joint replacement surgery.
For example, the unequal length of both lower limbs (that is, one leg is long and one leg is short), peri-prosthetic fractures, prosthesis dislocations, etc., which is a big pain point in the field of orthopedics.
Therefore, the use of artificial intelligence technology for precise preoperative intelligent planning will be an important measure to promote the reform of traditional orthopedic surgery.
Build a "new infrastructure" of smart orthopedics and empower traditional orthopedic surgery
The so-called "new infrastructure" of smart orthopedics refers to the digitization of the entire orthopedic department.
Whether it is two-dimensional X-ray diagnosis, or three-dimensional CT or MRI diagnosis, artificial intelligence technology can be used to build a digital orthopedic department through deep learning of the experience of well-known experts, from preoperative, intraoperative, postoperative, follow-up to rehabilitation, can be connected by digital means, such as helping primary doctors, intelligent diagnosis and typing of patients' diseases through artificial intelligence technology before surgery, and then surgery.
Smart planning for joint replacement surgery is of great help to doctors, as in any large theatrical performance, where participants rehearse multiple times before the performance. The same is true for doctors to do surgery, if you can use the computer to rehearse the patient's surgical process, each operation will be more strategic, which is also the effect that doctors hope to achieve.
Nagagi Valley's intelligent orthopedic "new infrastructure" system can design the entire surgical plan, including the selection of the prosthesis, the installation location and angle of the prosthesis, and give a three-dimensional overall solution with three-dimensional reconstruction technology, so that the doctor can simulate the operation in the computer, and then find the most suitable personalized customized surgical plan for the patient.
Figure | AIJOINT Artificial Intelligence Joint Replacement System (Source: Nagagi Valley)
From the current industry situation, Nagagi Valley's AIJOINT technology is in the leading position in the world. Dr. Zhang Yiling said: "Our ROPA surgical robot is equipped with the artificial intelligence AIJOINT system, which can help doctors accurately locate and guide the preoperative precise plan to accurately position and guide the osteotomy during the operation.
Helping patients to operate accurately will help patients a lot: first, shorten the operation time; second, improve the accuracy of surgery; third, increase the safety of surgery, so as to help patients achieve the purpose of rapid recovery. ”
Now the overall accuracy of this result has reached less than 1 mm, which is relatively high in the industry. In this case, the surgical results of each patient are very precise, and the patient can conserve maximum bone mass, reduce bleeding, reduce the operation time, and reduce the risk of infection.
The intelligent system can also evaluate the patient's postoperative recovery, score the joints, and also be able to follow up at different times, Nagaki Valley hopes that through a series of digital means, the entire orthopedic diagnosis and treatment, including rehabilitation, all the processes to build a software + hardware as one of the orthopedic digital "new infrastructure", for the traditional orthopedic empowerment.
Overcome the problems of artificial replacement surgery and build core barriers to accelerate the digitization of orthopedics
Surgical robots are mainly divided into two categories, one is soft tissue robots, that is, master-slave robots; the other is hard tissue robots, that is, navigation and positioning robots. The characteristic of the navigation and positioning robot is to accurately plan the preoperative operation and accurately execute it during the operation.
Orthopedic surgical robots can make surgery more accurate, but also to reduce the learning cost of young doctors. Originally, it may take twenty years to train a senior orthopedic surgeon, but now with the help of artificial intelligence surgical robot system, it is expected to cultivate a senior orthopedic expert with twenty years of surgical experience in about two or three years.
Taking the hip joint as an example, there are many difficulties in the traditional method of "artificial replacement surgery".
The first major difficulty is the selection of types. The hip joint consists of four accessories, each with 10 to 20 different sizes and models. Most importantly, because the size and size of the bones of each patient are different.
There are about thousands of combinations of prostheses to be selected before surgery, so doctors can only rely on experience before surgery, which is a huge challenge for doctors, but through the team's AI system, doctors can easily select types before surgery through computers.
Figure | ROPA Artificial Intelligence Hip Replacement Surgery Robot System (Source: Nagagi Valley)
The second difficulty is the placement angle and placement of the prosthesis. For example, the acetabular side may have anterior inclination and abduction angle, the femoral handle may have eccentric distance, the height of the femoral handle can control the length of the leg, and the eccentric distance originally requires the doctor to judge and make decisions in the operation, so as long as one link changes, it will affect the change of another link.
The most common manifestation is that it leads to unequal length of the limbs, such as one leg length and one short. If the joint can be replaced for 30 years, if it is not changed for one or two years, it will have to be replaced or renovated, which is the surgical problem of joint replacement.
Through artificial intelligence technology, Nagagi Valley can determine these blood types and placement locations and sizes before surgery, and then do a good job of preoperative clinical plan through surgical robots, and assist doctors in accurate execution during surgery, so that each operation is incomparably accurate, so that every patient can get a customized program, and finally the patient gets a very good effect.
At the same time, doctors can also shorten the doctor's surgery time, reduce bleeding, and replace the joints for a lifetime, so that patients do not feel that they have changed the joints, which may be the ultimate goal of Nagagi Valley.
Nagagi Valley will build a complete set of perfect three-dimensional surgical solutions through artificial intelligence deep learning algorithms to create its own core barriers, through the early massive amount of medical big data, including machine images for this deep learning, and cooperate with many experienced experts to learn expert experience to build a mature set of intelligent surgical solutions.
After returning from Harvard University, I am committed to making surgery difficult for the world
It is reported that Dr. Zhang Yiling studied at Harvard Medical School in the United States, has been engaged in the research of orthopedic digitalization and intelligence, combined with its own industry background, eager to learn the latest, most advanced technology can be applied in the clinic, so that every operation can achieve intelligence and digitalization, to provide every patient with accurate, customized treatment plan, and truly make the world no difficult surgery.
Therefore, Dr. Zhang Yiling resolutely gave up his life in the United States and the opportunity to become a professor in colleges and universities, and chose to do this career when he returned to China, he said: "Investing in this industry, I have a determination to serve the Chinese people with what I have learned. ”
Under the digital trend of orthopedic surgery, Changmugu has been recognized by a number of investment institutions such as CICC Capital, IDG and CDH Capital, and recently announced that it has received a 540 million yuan B round of financing.
In less than a year, the financing scale of Longwood Valley reached 660 million yuan, becoming the largest enterprise in the financing scale of the orthopedic intelligent track in 2021.
Liang Ying, Managing Director of CICC Capital and Head of CICC Kai Tak Fund, also said: "With the continuous maturity of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and medical robots, the field of surgical diagnosis and treatment is accelerating to usher in a revolutionary wave of digitalization. ”
This round of financing will be mainly used to accelerate the research and development of new products of orthopedic artificial intelligence and surgical robots, clinical registration, production expansion and global market promotion. In the future, Nagaki Valley plans a two-step layout:
First, the field of orthopedics from hip joints and knee joints has gradually expanded to spinal trauma, sports medicine, oncology, etc., hoping to be the world's largest digital and intelligent company in orthopedics, providing one-stop solutions for the entire orthopedic department.
Second, hope from intelligent surgical planning to robots, and gradually expand to intelligent image diagnosis, orthopedic image screening, as far as the screening of orthopedic diseases is concerned, Nagagi Valley wants to make this intelligent technology use as far as possible to move forward, so that more patients can find their own diseases of the bone system at an early stage, treat and intervene in advance, prevent problems before they occur, and let more patients avoid surgery.
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