Andrew Schorr:
Doctor, you have told me that you are also doing research and something sounds really cool to me, I’m not sure many of us understand it, nanotechnology. Where does that come in to the spine?
Dr. Hsu:
So nanotechnology is a hot research topic in a number of areas in medicine, and where it comes into spine and orthopedics is the way we make synthetic carriers for different bone-healing substitutes. So we used to take the patient’s bone graft. We used to harvest bone graft from the patient’s hip and allow that to form bone over time, and that always worked quite well, but many patients would complain of pain where you harvested the bone graft, so--
Andrew Schorr:
And it’s another incision.
Dr. Hsu:
Another incision, another surgery. There are some complications that have been reported from it, so this whole arena of research activity has gone to replacing this. And one more recent arena or I guess area of research is where nanotechnology can form synthetic carriers that are of the nanoscale. So nanotechnology refers to very, very small objects, objects that are formed from very small components. And we have found that these types of carriers interact with biologic cells and growth factors in a much more advantageous way than conventional carriers do, and they perform better both in preclinical and clinical studies. So we are actually working on a number of different molecules that will perhaps enhance the body’s ability to build bone.
Andrew Schorr:
So the hope would be then when you fix something also that it can be strengthening and lasting.
Dr. Hsu:
Absolutely. Long-term outcomes.
Andrew Schorr:
All right. I was joking with Roberto before the program. He’s 50. I said 50 is the new 30. You know, people are trying to be active. I mean, I think we all want to be like 95 and if it’s our dying day to have played tennis that afternoon before we say sayonara. And so we’re all trying to be active and have a life [without] pain, be in good shape, be active, do the things we like to do with the people we like to be with. Is the hope with orthopedics and with spine surgery that we can achieve this and do it in a less invasive way and in a strengthening way, like you talked about? Is that where we’re headed?
Dr. Hsu:
Absolutely. You know, as physicians and surgeons we try to do better. You know, we can be very satisfied with the patients that we treat, but there is always room for improvement, and minimally invasive surgery is one way for spine surgeons to improve upon what we do. And unfortunately, not every patient is a candidate for minimally-invasive surgery or surgery that would allow him or her to get back to active lifestyles, but for the most part we have a lot more tools in our toolbox to offer patients now than we used to. And I think when the appropriate indications are there we have come a long way in improving active lifestyles for patients after surgery.
Andrew Schorr:
Doctor, I know you are joining us from a conference in San Francisco where you’ll be speaking. Is Northwestern seen as a leader in this? Does your department and yourself, are you doing a lot of this?
Dr. Hsu:
Absolutely. Not only within orthopedic surgery and neurological surgery, but our research--I have a number of collaborators who specialize in bionanotechnology and stem cell research and growth factor production--where we collaborate on both a scientist and a clinician level to figure out solutions to problems. And it’s through this collaborative effort at an outstanding institution such as Northwestern that I think we can provide the most efficient research and get down to the answers that we want.
Andrew Schorr:
Well, we wish you well with that.
