PERTH, WA, January 2019

AIRO secures million dollar grant to continue shaping the future of Orthopaedics

The problem we’re trying to solve is a big one. Every year in Australia alone, more than 120,000 people have a joint replaced using old fashioned technology. Surgeons are still relying on hand-held bone-cutting saws or hand-guided battery-powered tools that haven’t changed in decades. The imprecision that results leads to an unfortunate outcome for many patients, including long recovery times, remedial operations and long-term dissatisfaction^[1].

Many millions more suffer the same fate worldwide.

Our aim at the Australian Institute of Robotic Orthopaedics (AIRO) is to significantly improve those procedures through robot-assisted laser surgery and custom-fit implants. And we’ve just taken another major step towards that goal with the awarding of an Accelerating Commercialisation Grant by the Australian Federal Government valued at one million dollars.

If you haven’t heard of this grant, it’s run by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science Business Entrepreneurs’ Programme and is incredibly prestigious, not to mention highly sought-after.

“This is a major achievement.” said AIRO Director and Co-Founder Professor Riaz Khan, “This grant will help us significantly; to buy more equipment, employ more engineers, run more real-world tests. All of which will help AIRO accelerate our commercialisation programme, so we can help transform the lives of millions of people sooner.”

AIRO’s new medical technology will not only help millions, it could generate billions. With the global joint reconstruction market worth over US$20 billion a year, it has the very real potential to put Australia at the top of an industry that is both vital to the quality of life of humans and to the economy of our country.

Read more: Link to Business News Article: https://www.businessnews.com.au/article/17m-to-accelerate-Perth-tech-hopefuls

Reference:

[1] Gunarantne et al (2017). Patent dissatisfaction following total knee arthroplasty: A systematic review of the literature. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arth.2017.07.021

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