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Zimmer Holdings Opens New Training Institute

Traditionally, clinicians and surgeons who sought training on specific orthopedic procedures or with certain types of implants had little control over their educational destinations. Those who primarily used implants made by Zimmer Holdings Inc., for instance, could choose between two training facilities in the continental United States—Warsaw, Ind., or Carlsbad, Calif.

Now there’s a third choice: Parsippany, N.J.

In late April, Zimmer executives and Parsippany Mayor James R. Barberio celebrated the official opening of a training center at the company’s Trabecular Metal Technology facility in the northern New Jersey community. The “Zimmer Institute at TMT” (as it is called in marketing materials) is the company’s first full-time BioSkills training center outside Zimmer’s headquarters in Warsaw.

The Institute encompasses more than 15,000 square feet within the 113,000-square-foot facility on Zimmer’s 10.94-acre TMT campus in Parsippany. According to executives, the Institute offers cadaveric-based training as well as intensive case study reviews, simulations and anatomical model workshops. Zimmer officials estimate that more than 1,000 orthopedic surgeons and dental clinicians could potentially be trained each year at the facility.

“The new Institute at Trabecular Metal Technology provides a convenient and progressive environment for training orthopedic surgeons and dental clinicians from across the tri-state area and the eastern seaboard,” Richard Stair, Zimmer’s senior vice president, Global Operations & Logistics, told an audience of company executives, workers and media at the Institute’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. “Its proximity to New York City makes this location ideal for surgeons around the world.”

Seventeen thousand surgeons (or medical professions), to be exact. Michael Collins, vice president for Research & Development at Zimmer Dental, provided that estimate as he led a tour of the Institute’s state-of-the-art dental facility that provides training to medical professionals in both oral surgery and prosthetics. Clinicians undergoing the two-day training program in the dental facility work on lifelike mannequins that simulate the bones and soft tissue in real patients.

Near the dental training center is a simulated operating room equipped with a high-definition camera system that can broadcast procedures over the Internet. Zimmer officials said the room was designed to emulate a bona fide O.R. so surgeons could practice new procedures in a near-authentic environment. That realism translates to the “patients” as well—surgeons operate (and assist as well) on cadavers, honing their skills in such procedures as shoulder replacements, primary hip and knee arthroplasty, and revision hip arthroplasty.

“We want to give every surgeon the opportunity to place an implant inside the body as well as assist on these procedures,” said Tim Hoeman, director of brand management for Zimmer Trabecular Metal Technology. “Most of the training courses will last one day. Surgeons will do a primary [implant] case and then rip out that implant and perform a revision [implant] case. We want their experience to be as close as possible to the real thing.”

Zimmer officials also want surgeons to be as close as possible to the Trabecular Metal manufacturing process (hence the reason for locating the company’s newest training center in Parsippany). Executives hope surgeons who attend training at the Institute will leave with a better understanding of the Trabecular Metal technology.

“In addition to the classroom and laboratory resources offered at this site, training at the Trabecular Metal facility gives surgeons the opportunity to get an inside look at the Trabecular Metal manufacturing process,” said Jeff Paulsen, group president of Zimmer’s Global Businesses. “We hope that the Zimmer Institute here will give surgeons a better understanding of what makes this advanced platform technology so unique.”

What makes the technology unique (according to Zimmer, anyway) is its cellular structure and composition. The material is highly porous, making it ideal for bone formation, tissue infiltration and strong attachment. “The pore size and high volume porosity of Trabecular Metal supports vascularization and rapid, secure soft tissue growth,” promotional materials on the company’s website read.

Since its introduction more than a decade ago, Trabecular Metal has been used by more than 300,000 surgeons worldwide, Zimmer executives claimed. Products that have incorporated the technology over the years include the acetabular [hip] cup, the revision shell, a humeral stem and a reverse shoulder system.