Digitally Empowered Medical-Engineering Innovation: Key Technologies and Implications for Digital Diagnosis and Treatment of Limb Osteoarthritis (Invited)

This paper systematically reviews the breakthrough achievements of Professor Wang Jinwu’s research team in digital diagnosis and treatment of limb osteoarthritis (OA). Addressing key challenges in conventional OA management, such as difficulties in early screening, the lack of biomechanically adaptive stepwise treatment strategies, and the disconnect between surgery and postoperative rehabilitation, the team has developed a novel “screening-treatment-rehabilitation” model through interdisciplinary integration of medicine and engineering supported by digital technologies. Specifically, they developed a biplanar fluoroscopy system for precise dynamic screening, proposed the theory of “joint unloading mechanical correction”, and implemented precision treatment through the integration of 3D-printed personalized orthoses, stem cell enrichment techniques, and customized prostheses. In addition, they pioneered an Internet of Things (IoT)-based remote cloud rehabilitation network. Although this framework still requires further optimization regarding micro-metabolic mechanism coupling and industrial cost reduction, deeper integration with cutting-edge technologies such as organoids and digital twins in the future is expected to drive OA diagnosis and treatment toward a new stage of multidimensional precision medicine, demonstrating the profound value of medical-engineering integration in advancing human health.