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4 Innovations That Could Change How We Treat Aging Bones and Joints
From replacement knees that track your rehab progress to injections that help joints rebuild themselves, the “smart revolution” is advancing orthopedic care
3-minute read
Artificial knee joint tracks rehab success
Betsy Frost’s knee hurt all the time. A retired accountant from Houston, she used to bike, run and swim before tearing her ACL while skiing in her early 20s.
“That slowed me down,” she says. Despite ligament reconstruction and a steady diet of over-the-counter pain relievers, she couldn’t straighten her knee, stand for very long or walk around the block without having to sit down.
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When Frost, 66, decided to have a total knee replacement in 2025, she chose a first-of-its-kind “smart knee” — the Zimmer Biomet Persona IQ — that tracks her daily steps, walking speed, stride length, range of motion and other measurements, sending the data to an app in her smartphone and to her orthopedic surgeon.
“It was really good to have all of that data,” Frost says. “I can see how many steps I’m at. And the app compares how I am doing against other people.” She has progressed from swimming and walking to playing golf, all without pain, she says.
Courtesy Betsy Frost
The Persona IQ knee implant has motion-tracking sensors, powered by an up-to-10-year battery, located in a small extension that fits into the shinbone. Motion data gets transmitted to a base station overnight and, from there, to a user’s smartphone as well as a data system that physicians use to track the patient’s progress.
The app, called Mymobility, compares a user’s metrics with those of similar patients, lets users track their progress by also taking videos of, say, their knee movement, and provides exercises and useful information.
“I can follow patients from the first step they take after surgery to six weeks, three months, up to 10 years down the road. I know exactly what’s happening in the knee,” says Dr. Andrew N. Luu, director of orthopedics and total joint replacement surgery at PIH Health Whittier Hospital, in the Los Angeles area. He is the orthopedic surgeon who performed Frost’s knee replacement.
Over 1 million older adults and other Medicare beneficiaries had total knee replacement surgery in 2022, a number predicted to grow to 2.8 million by 2040, according to a 2025 Rush University study. Because of pain, fatigue and a fear of exercise, among other reasons, many patients who get knee replacements do not keep up with recommended levels of postsurgical physical activity, which may limit their recovery.
Seeing your own activity numbers — and hearing from your doctor if you fall behind or seem to be struggling — can make a difference, Luu says.
Meanwhile, Frost is on the move. Last summer, she hiked a Colorado mountain with her grandchildren. “I pretty much wore them out, but I was still going,” she says.
More advances in joint and bone care
On the horizon: Joints that rebuild themselves
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder are developing treatments that spur aging joints to repair themselves. Still in preclinical studies, the minimally invasive therapies deliver medication or a mix of proteins and biomaterials as injections into joints or infusions to stop or reverse osteoarthritis.
Researchers hope to begin human trials in 2028.
On the horizon: An implant that monitors back surgery recovery
University of Pittsburgh neurosurgeons and engineers have devised an implant that tracks spinal healing and function after fusion surgery. The implant uses sensors similar to those used to monitor the strength of bridges.
On the horizon: AI X-ray check finds weakening bones
Japanese researchers have created an artificial intelligence tool that scans standard X-rays of the spine for signs of fracture-prone bones. Researchers say it could help find weakening bones in people who haven’t had a bone scan.
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