IBV has a wide experience in development of products and health services that improve the quality of life for people in all fields related to health technology, focusing on biomechanics, ergonomics and functionality.

In MEDICA, IBV will present its consultancy services throughout the life cycle of this type of products: design, evaluation of materials and biomaterials, documentation and CE marking and technical and clinical evaluation.

IBV has collaborated with companies (Zimmer-Biomet, Surgival, MediImplant) and orthopaedic surgeons in developing products which are currently commercial. The main lines of design for companies are:

♦ Spinal fixation devices

♦ Knee and hip prostheses

♦ Customised prostheses

♦ Dental implant

♦ Medical instruments and visual measure systems

 IBV is considered as the reference laboratory for technical evaluation of medical products.

As Carlos Atienza, IBV Head of Innovation in Health Care Technology, points out with IBV Biomechanical Studies service, ‘our research group develops finite element models (FEM) of anatomic joints and bones. Currently IBV has available a parametric FEM of lumbar spine and other parts of the body’.

With other techniques, ‘we support the evaluation of experimentation subjects by means of the movement analysis. The study of human movement in laboratory is based on the performance of tests on subjects in order to obtain kinematics, kinetic and physiological parameters’.        

In addition, IBV will show the Design and manufacturing service for custom implants based on additive manufacturing technologies. This service has helped integrate and automate the processes that support the design and supply of custom implants produced by additive manufacturing technologies.

As Carlos Atienza remarks, ‘today, medical practice requires implants that are better customized to individual patients’. As such, expectations of 3D printing are growing, and it is increasingly common to see news about important clinical advances made thanks to this new technology.

‘The production flexibility that additive manufacturing brings compared with traditional  methods  (such  as machining parts from forging or casting) seems likely to lend itself to these technologies. In addition, customized implants allow clinics and hospitals to reduce the volume of products in storage and avoid having to keep all different sizes of implants on hand’, adds Atienza.

Customizing implants. Service methodology.

IBV makes a protocol for the design to provide a quick response with an implant fully customized to the patient’s body. Highly specialized tools such as Mimics® Innovation Suite by Materialise has been introduced for this purpose. This latest methodology has been used, for instance, to obtain customized plate osteosynthesis for mandibular fractures in the field of craniomaxillofacial surgery. The service required for integrating the specialized tools used in customization: Solidworks®, Mimics® Innovation Suite and Ansys®.