(Stuttgart/Tübingen) – In late January 2022, the latest workshop in the “Incisions and insights” series was once again streamed live from the operating theatre of the Institute of Clinical Anatomy and Cell Analysis in Tübingen. Leading doctors specialising in different fields illustrated their medical needs on the anatomical specimen, this time focusing on “Orthopaedics, surgery and rehabilitation technology”. The one-hour workshop offered participating developers from medtech companies further interesting insights and whetted their appetites for the main event, which will take place on site again in June.

As always, the workshop attracted some extremely high-profile individuals. Prof. Bernhard Hirt, Medical Director of the Institute of Clinical Anatomy and Cell Analysis, played host at the institute and chaired the panel discussion involving Prof. Tina Histing, Medical Director of BG Hospital Tübingen, Prof. Philip Kasten, Head of OCC (Orthopaedic Surgical Centre) Tübingen, and Prof. Andreas Niess, Medical Director of the University Hospital of Tübingen’s Department of Sports Medicine. Joining them by video link was Dr. Jörg Richter, Medical Director of the Centre for Sports Orthopaedics and Arthroscopic Joint Surgery at OKM (Orthopädische Klinik Markgröningen). In the institute’s operating theatre, BG Hospital Tübingen’s Deputy Medical Director, Dr. Andreas Badke, demonstrated a procedure to stabilise a spinal fracture using screws. Access to the surgical field was maintained using retractors. During an operation on the spinal column, these retractors squeeze the muscles so hard for two to three hours that tissue can be destroyed. An intelligent system is therefore needed that will indicate in good time when the retractors need to be loosened to restore the supply of blood – without having to interrupt the actual procedure for an unnecessarily long time. This was just one of several medical needs discussed during the one-hour workshop.