(Jan. 8, 2015) Last summer Dr. Pasquale Petrera, an orthopedic surgeon in Salisbury, asked his sons, Matteo and James, if they would be interested in partnering with him in medical research.
Dr. Petrera had received a call for abstracts for a prestigious international total joint replacement meeting. Both sons were happy to work with their father researching total joint surgery.
The research they tackled compared operating times for knee surgery using conventional instruments with different levels of experience using a novel GPS (“Guided Personalized Surgery”, a proprietary type of extremely accurate imageless navigation for total knee replacement) guidance system (Exactech GPS, Blue-Ortho, Grenoble, France).
Three abstracts were prepared. Two of them were researched and written by Matteo, a Worcester Prep graduate and a junior at Villanova University. For the third, James, a senior at Worcester Prep, spent his summer vacation extracting and analyzing medical data for the report. His findings were found to be statistically significant and an abstract was prepared.
Use of the more accurate GPS system did not increase operative time for patients. One of the primary objections to computer navigation in orthopedic surgery is the perceived increased operating time.
The three abstracts prepared by the Petrera family were accepted for presentation at the International Joint Replacement Transatlantic Orthopaedic Congress in New York City, Oct. 3-5.
Dr. Pasquale Petrera presented the findings at the Congress, explaining to his audience that Matteo and James were his major researchers.
The poster explaining the findings garnered great interest. In fact, Exactech of Gainesville, Fla. produced a “white paper” from the Petrera studies for physician training purposes. The research director from Exactech was amazed that most of the research was completed by a senior in high school and a junior in college.
Dr. Petrera had received a call for abstracts for a prestigious international total joint replacement meeting. Both sons were happy to work with their father researching total joint surgery.
The research they tackled compared operating times for knee surgery using conventional instruments with different levels of experience using a novel GPS (“Guided Personalized Surgery”, a proprietary type of extremely accurate imageless navigation for total knee replacement) guidance system (Exactech GPS, Blue-Ortho, Grenoble, France).
Three abstracts were prepared. Two of them were researched and written by Matteo, a Worcester Prep graduate and a junior at Villanova University. For the third, James, a senior at Worcester Prep, spent his summer vacation extracting and analyzing medical data for the report. His findings were found to be statistically significant and an abstract was prepared.
Use of the more accurate GPS system did not increase operative time for patients. One of the primary objections to computer navigation in orthopedic surgery is the perceived increased operating time.
The three abstracts prepared by the Petrera family were accepted for presentation at the International Joint Replacement Transatlantic Orthopaedic Congress in New York City, Oct. 3-5.
Dr. Pasquale Petrera presented the findings at the Congress, explaining to his audience that Matteo and James were his major researchers.
The poster explaining the findings garnered great interest. In fact, Exactech of Gainesville, Fla. produced a “white paper” from the Petrera studies for physician training purposes. The research director from Exactech was amazed that most of the research was completed by a senior in high school and a junior in college.