The Zimmer Institute
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The Zimmer Institute Mobile Learning Center, shown here at the company's Warsaw, Indiana, headquarters, allows the company to take surgeon education to facilities across North America.
The Operating Lab area is the focus of the surgeon training facilities in the new 15,000 square-foot Zimmer Institute, which was opened today at Zimmer headquarters in Warsaw, Indiana.
Zimmer Holdings, Inc. formally launched the Zimmer Institute, March 31, 2003, with a meeting of surgeon advisers and government and business officials. The Institute is a key part of Zimmer’s industry-leading program to bring the benefits of minimally invasive surgery to joint replacement patients.
“The opening of the Zimmer Institute is a real milestone in the continuing evolution of our four-year old MIS program,” said Ray Elliott, Zimmer chairman, president and chief executive officer. “The Institute will support our goal of making the patient benefits of IS joint replacement broadly available, and it greatly expands the training effort and skills transfer.”
The goals of minimally invasive joint replacement are to minimize blood loss during surgery, to shorten or nearly eliminate the associated hospital stay, to minimize the pain involved in rehabilitation, and to significantly shorten the time required for a patient to return to a normal lifestyle.
In early April, the first group of surgeons will be trained at the Institute in Zimmer’s Minimally Invasive Solutions™ (IS ™) Procedures and Technologies. The company expects to train 500 surgeons worldwide in the Zimmer MIS 2-Incision Hip Replacement procedure by the end of the year. More than 400 MIS 2-Incision hip replacement procedures have been completed since the start of the Zimmer program in April 2001. The MIS 2-Incision procedure allows for reduced postoperative pain, reduced length of hospital stay, and the patients’ accelerated return to independent daily living.
The Zimmer Institute is a state-of-the-art surgeon training facility, located at Zimmer’s headquarters, that represents the hub of a worldwide network dedicated to advancing Zimmer Minimally Invasive Solutions Procedures and Technologies. The Zimmer Institute will also serve as a home for the company’s “O.R. of the Future” initiative and other development efforts that will serve to provide continued innovative ideas.
Zimmer invested approximately $2 million in the design and construction of the 15,000-square foot Zimmer Institute. The company has said that it plans to invest a total of approximately $20 million in its overall MIS development program during 2003.
The Institute offers surgeons the opportunity to learn the surgical procedure in a laboratory environment that closely simulates an operating room. In addition, the Institute employs advanced electronic training equipment and links to satellite facilities. Zimmer is in the process of finalizing agreements with a number of prominent hospitals and teaching institutions that will become part of a worldwide network offering Zimmer Institute courses.
Zimmer has established an Institute advisory panel, made up of prominent orthopaedic surgeons, to help guide the operation and expansion of the Institute’s educational efforts. Aaron Rosenberg, M.D., Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago, chairs the advisory panel. “Because minimally invasive surgery represents a new approach to what is already a very successful procedure, it is important that the transfer of knowledge and skills is just as effective as the design of the procedure and the instruments,” Dr. Rosenberg said. “The Zimmer Institute represents a world-class educational effort that will provide surgeons an excellent basis for incorporating minimally invasive joint replacement into their practices.”
"By the end of the year 2004, more than 2,000 surgeons worldwide have been trained at The Zimmer Institute headquarter, or at one of The Zimmer Institute Satellites or wetlab locations, on one or more of the following procedures:
MIS™ 2-Incision™ Hip Procedure
MIS Mini-Incision Hip Procedure
MIS Quad-Sparing™ Total Knee Procedure
MIS Mini-Incision Knee Procedure
MIS Partial Knee Procedure
Zimmer® MIS Minimally Invasive Solutions™ may allow for reduced postoperative pain, reduced length of hospital stay, and the patient's accelerated return to independent daily living".
