Every year in Australia more than 782,600 knee replacement surgeries are performed, of which 9% will require further surgery due to complications. MDRI researcher Dr Rami Al-Dirini is finding ways to improve the outcomes of knee surgery, by developing a more personalised approach.

Rami has been awarded an early career research seed grant from the Bone Health Foundation, to develop and evaluate a customised novel implant design, with the overall goal of improving joint stability. The project looks to revolutionise current surgical practice by shifting the focus from traditional intraoperative ligament balancing to motion replication, reducing surgery time as well as the learning curve for surgeon training. Led by Rami, the project brings together an exceptional blend of cross-disciplinary expertise from biomechanical engineers Associate Professor Saulo Martelli and Professor Mark Taylor, and orthopaedic surgeon Professor Bogdan Soloman.

The work will make use of the world class facilities within the Medical Device Research Institute including advanced biomechanical modelling and 3D printing technologies, a 10-camera instrumented motion analysis lab and state-of-the-art 6 degree of freedom hexapod robot.