Design Innovation in Orthopaedics: Challenging conventional thinking

Large scale innovation in orthopaedic surgery is rare and typically incremental in process. Drawing on a case-study of the development of a surgical device, this paper discusses the design principles that ensured the end-user, that is the surgeon and the context of surgery, the operating theatre, are integrated into the design process. The device that was developed used external points of reference to locate anatomy within the knee pre-operatively. In testing, the device has been shown to improve surgical outcomes by simplifying the surgery and reducing reliance on visual 'eyeballing' techniques. The significance of the innovative approach to product design is that the surgical device not only produced improved outcomes, but the design process resulted in challenging existing surgical practice and accepted wisdom in knee ligament surgery.