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Bone Quality Considerations In Structural Allograft Banking

Learning Objectives

  1. Upon completion, participant will be able to define the concept of ‘bone quality’
  2. Upon completion, participant will be able to summarize some key bone quality concepts and how they relate to structural allograft mechanical performance
  3. Upon completion, participant will be able to summarize known and theorized changes in bone quality due to disease, processing, sterilization and upon implantation.
  4. Upon completion, participant will be able to describe how gamma irradiation sterilization degrades bone quality and mechanical performance and the importance of this degradation in the context of structural allografts
  5. Upon completion, participant will be able to summarize and critique recent progress in the development of means to protect the mechanical properties of cortical bone allograft while still using gamma irradiation sterilization
  6. Upon completion, participant will be able to identify opportunities and challenges for bone quality assessment in tissue banking.

Thomas L. Willett, PhD

Assistant Professor, Systems Design Engineering - Biomedical Engineering Program

Thomas Willett is an Assistant Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo where he directs the Composite Biomaterial Systems Laboratory and contributes to the undergraduate Biomedical Engineering program and a graduate level NSERC CREATE training program in Global Biomedical Technology Research and Innovation. He has been involved in skeletal tissue mechanics research (both soft and hard tissues) for over 15 years, starting with cartilage mechanics (MASc, Queen’s University), then damage mechanisms in tendons (PhD, Dalhousie University) and a broad range of studies in bone quality and mechanics (Mount Sinai Hospital and University of Toronto). He has conducted research in the structural allograft processing area for approximately 8 years. Current research focusses on cortical bone fracture mechanics, the factors affecting cortical bone quality and mechanical properties including processing and sterilization in tissue banking, and the development of 3D printable composite biomaterials for bone reconstruction. He has published 45 peer reviewed journal articles and his laboratory has received major funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Foundational for Innovation and the Ontario Ministry for Research and Innovation.

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0.50 credits  |  Certificate available
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