TOKA FE Modeller

3D Metal Printing (3D-MP) develop solutions for public health improvements by continually innovating and improving our product range to deliver superior patient outcomes. We additively manufacture a range of custom-made medical devices and digital applications for 3D surgical planning. Additive manufacturing is an innovative technology that works by fusing together very fine layers of metal powder using a laser beam. This process can produce complex geometries which might not have been possible using conventional techniques; the 'unsintered' or loose material is recycled for future use, making it both economical and environmentally friendly. 3DMP are developing a 3D printed orthopaedic implant (TOKA) as a precision engineered personalised solution to knee pain, particularly designed for young patients suffering from knee arthritis but not yet suitable for partial or total Knee-Replacement. High-Tibial-Osteotomy (HTO) is a surgical treatment option for those patients, preserving the native joint by re-aligning the tibia and the weight / forces distribution, often the cause of major pain. Current market solutions are very challenging, present several complications and cause patients' soft tissue irritation due to the generic nature of the plate. TOKA removes those complexities providing surgeons with an intuitive 3D planning environment to achieve precise intervention, optimum knee alignment with minimal risks for patients and personalised prosthesis for superior comfort and fast recovery. Due to COVID-19, the majority of routine surgical procedures have been suspended. Lifting restrictions and returning to surgery, however, places a significant burden on the NHS and risks an increase in COVID infections. Demand for elective joint replacement surgery for osteoarthritis is set to double by 2030\. In the UK there are currently \>130,000 knee surgeries annually. Surgeons and patients need to interact in new ways to enable procedures to be delivered without compromising NHS workers and wider societal immunity. Consequently, the need for innovative, enabling digital technologies has accelerated dramatically. Our project will integrate TOKA's existing digital products (Surgical Simulator, VR training and Patient App) and surgical hardware to create an interactive platform supporting TOKA adoption in the NHS. TOKA Portal will provide surgeons, patients and NHS procurement teams a single point of interaction enabling communication, collaborative design, procurement, scheduling and post-operative monitoring. This will have significant positive impacts for the NHS in sustainably recovering from COVID-19, (enabling remote consultations minimising infection risk; reducing hospital stays; supporting the NHS digital transformation; £40M. annual savings in delivering HTO operations), patients (better clinical outcomes; reduced inpatient time; return to active lifestyles with health and wellbeing benefits e.g. preventing the onset of obesity or diabetes) and the environment (reduced transport emissions through remote consultations; reductions in energy and waste by reducing overnight hospital stays). The project is core to 3DMP's mission to restore patients' wellbeing in an efficient healthcare system and will initially create 3 new jobs building on previously funded public research supporting NHS delivery of HTO operations, more cost effectively and sustainably, enabling early stage knee osteoarthritis sufferers to return to work and life more active lifestyles.