It was exciting for me to speak at the launch of the Queensland Unit for Advanced Shoulder Research (QUASR) held at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in January 2020.
Significant to the timing of this launch was our recent successful ITTC grant application in conjunction with QUT and several other universities which represents more than $8million over the next four years.
This is what I said at the launch:
Statistics are important to our practice of medicine. Statistics guide us as to the likely diagnosis, they aid in directing our investigations and they inform us as to the likelihood of success of proposed treatment.
However, if our approach is solely a statistical one we risk losing sight of the individual, their particular circumstances or specific treatment needs. For example, if we only ever look at prosthetic joint infections from a statistical standpoint we risk forever having a 2% rate of prosthetic joint infections. A devastating complication for that patient, that conservatively costs several hundred thousand dollars to successfully treat. Instead, if we look to consider the problem not just at a statistical level but at an individual level where we hunt down, identify and address each and every factor that contributes to the occurrence of this complication then there may come a time when no one has the misfortune to suffer from an infected joint replacement.
The cost to the patient and our community of a missed diagnosis, suboptimal treatment or an avoidable complication is substantial and invariably far greater than the cost required to avoid them. Avoiding them is influenced greatly by focussing on the specifics, the individual.
When we focus our investigations and enquiries down to a field as narrow as shoulder biomechanics we have the opportunity to focus on the individual and to the specifics. As we develop knowledge and expertise that will become of value to others in Australia and overseas.
I am excited to be involved with such a wonderful collaboration
In particular, I would like to thank our industry partners: Wright Medical, Zimmer Biomet, Surgical Specialties and Materialise. I am proud to be involved with companies that believe in collaborations such as this and are prepared to allocate scarce company funds to support them.
My thanks also go to my partner Ashish Gupta for his vision; to our QUT colleagues Prof YT Gu, Prof Peter Pivonka and Professor Graham Kerr for their engagement and enduring support and also to our fellows and students who make it all worthwhile.
Thank you