CAOS 2017: Editor's Preface

About the volume:

This volume contains the papers presented at CAOS 2017: the 17th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery, which was held on 14-17 June 2017 in Aachen, Germany.

There were 148 accepted submissions. Each submission was reviewed by 4 program committee members, two of whom clinical and two with a technical background. Authors of 105 of these opted into this open access pilot.

About the conference:

Demographic changes and the related need for efficiency in public health care are driving factors in clinical medicine and biomedical engineering research. Patient specific therapeutic effectiveness resulting in an optimal restoration and preservation of workability, mobility and autonomy as well as patients’ quality of life are key factors for socioeconomic efficiency of public health care. The synergy of clinical research, advanced engineering methodology and modern technologies support the trend towards personalized solutions for an optimized therapy of each individual patient. For more than two decades CAOS has been dedicated to interdisciplinary research for the development and evaluation of tools providing a better link between patient specific planning information and surgical action. Today, CAOS tends towards an integrated platform providing modern imaging and sensor information, its registration and integration for patient specific adaptation of integrated therapeutic workflows including logistics, preoperative preparation, surgery and rehabilitation and supporting adequate technical means for model guided action as well as surgical monitoring and documentation for quality control, research, training and education. Last but not least, the appropriate integration of clinical quality and risk management represent further potentials of Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery Science and related fields.

CAOS 2017 in Aachen provided a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange of information and insight into the latest results of research and development in this fascinating field. The RWTH Aachen University, being one of the largest and top ranked technical universities in Germany and with its university hospital being one of the largest clinical buildings in Europe, stands for interdisciplinary research and education per se. At the same time, Aachen is a charming city in the heart of Europe combining tradition and innovation in its best sense.

In collaboration with:

• European Orthopaedic Research Society (EROS)
• Northern-German Association for Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery (NOUV)
• German Spine Society (DWG) 
• German Society for Biomechanics - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Biomechanik e. V. (DGfB)
• Helmholtz-Institute for Biomedical Engineering - RWTH Aachen University
• CeMPEG e. V. – Center for Usability and Risk Engineering of Medical Devices (CureMeD)

Sponsors:

• Gold sponsor
  • ConforMIS Europe GmbH (Fürth/DE)
• Silver sponsor
  • Exactech, Inc. (Gainesville, FL/US)

The EasyChair system provided an expert platform for all matters related to the reviewing process, production of these proceedings, program and web page generation.