News
Greenslopes specialist awarded Federal Government grant for orthopaedic research
Feb 24, 2020
A Greenslopes shoulder surgeon has received funding to help develop a new research centre to improve outcomes for patients suffering from osteoarthritis and other orthopaedic conditions.
Dr Ashish Gupta founded the Queensland Unit for Advanced Shoulder Research (QUASR) and, alongside a leadership team, put in a bid to the Federal Government’s Australian Research Council (ARC) to develop a centre for orthopaedic shoulder biomechanics.
The leadership team comprised of Prof YuanTong Gu, Prof Peter Pivonka, Prof Graham Kerr and A/Prof Kenneth Cutbush from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
The submission was successful and received a $4 million grant from the ARC to help develop the Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Joint Biomechanics (ITTC). The centre is a collaborative effort between QUT and several industry and university partners, which has attracted a total of $7.7million in cash and in-kind support.
“It is a great honour to receive the grant; there is only a handful of ITTCs in Australia and this is certainly a large impetus for shoulder research. It is a great win for the team and all our collaborators at QUASR,” Dr Gupta said.
The aim of the ITTC will be to advance surgical training, developing workforce in the biomedical industry and the development of personalised medical solutions for patients with shoulder problems.
It will also help to train and teach health professionals, to develop the next generation of implants and orthopaedic solutions.
Key focus areas for the Queensland Unit for Advanced Shoulder Research include:
- Personalised arthroplasty or joint replacements
- New 3D printed tissue patches to help with rotator cuff tears
- Physiotherapy and rehabilitation solutions for sports shoulder injuries
- Shoulder cartilage research
- Improvements in the current surgical techniques and using 3D printing, virtual reality and robotics to supplement surgical procedures
“The main arms of the grant are to look at rehabilitation of patients, 3-D printing of implants, and biomechanics of the shoulder. This will improve our understanding why implants fail; so it is a fairly large undertaking,” Dr Gupta said.
Clinical data from Greenslopes Private Hospital will be used to help with research projects. Eventually, new techniques and new equipment developed at the centre will be trialled at the hospital.
“Greenslopes has been a really good in supporting complex shoulder surgery procedures and the use of new technology. The hospital’s CEO, Chris Went, and Ramsay Hospital Research Foundation CEO, Nicola Ware, have been very focussed on supporting research at Greenslopes,” Dr Gupta said.
The grant money will be used to employ up to 25 PhD and postdoctoral students to work at the centre over the next four years.