Zimmer Holdings, Inc. orthopedic devices remain the implants of choice of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Zimmer Awarded $65 Million Military Contract Modification
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On March 18, 2014, the Defense Department announced that the company has been awarded a $65 million modification exercising the third option period on a one-year base contract with the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The award includes five one-year option periods for orthopedic hip, knee, spine and extremity trauma implant procedural packages. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract.
Ortho Surgeons
Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2015 defense working capital funds.
Orthopedics in the military is obviously a critical component of national service. One of the services, the Army, has deployed nearly 30 orthopedic surgeons to Afghanistan in this 14th year of the war. The operational tempo remains high as 10 active-duty orthopedic surgeons remain in the country, writes Colonel Philip J. Belmont Jr., M.D., Orthopaedic Surgery Consultant, U.S. Army Surgeon General in the SOMOS Sentinel last year. SOMOS is the Society of Military Orthopedic Surgeons.
“The coming year of 2014 will hopefully see the operational requirements for deployments for orthopedic surgery decline but as long as there are soldiers deployed overseas our clinical expertise will be needed, ” adds Belmont.
He writes that there are 19 orthopedic surgery residency and 9 orthopedic surgery fellowship positions available this year. “The competition for Army orthopedic surgery residency positions has been intense, with an average of 1.47 medical school applicants per orthopedic surgery position during the years 2007-2011.”
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Discussion
This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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