SafeJOINTs
About the project
SafeJOINTs is a research programme to guide a safe return to high-impact activities (e.g., running, tennis) after total hip and knee replacement. In the UK, ~100,000 hip and ~108,000 knee replacements were performed in 2019; primary procedures cost the NHS close to £1 billion each annually. High-impact activities are often discouraged, yet existing studies mainly track surgical revision rates and overlook the biomechanical mechanisms, activity volume, and movement technique that drive bone/implant loading. Computational modelling is ideally suited to fill these gaps.
Why it matters
- Provide clinician-friendly guidance on which activities and techniques are safest after hip/knee replacement.
- Help patients and clinicians make evidence-based decisions that maximise quality of life without compromising implant longevity.
- Deliver open-access datasets/models to advance pre-clinical testing (beyond simplified ISO load profiles) and improve predictions of implant wear and bone loading in everyday and sport contexts.
