Case Study: Scripps Health achieves patient-specific, longer-lasting orthopedic implants with Altair HyperWorks

Scripps Health - Customer Case Study

Scripps Health’s Shiley Center for Orthopedic Research and Education (SCORE) faced the challenge of understanding patient-specific biomechanics to improve joint-replacement design, fixation and longevity—questions about range of motion, strength recovery and implant life that standard techniques couldn’t answer. To address this, the team adopted Altair’s HyperWorks toolset (including HyperMesh, OptiStruct and HyperStudy) to build high-fidelity, image-based models from CT and MRI data and to simulate implants and surgical options.

Using Altair HyperWorks, Scripps Health converted 50 CT shoulder scans into patient-specific finite‑element models, meshed complex bone and implant geometries, and ran optimizations and stress analyses—cutting meniscus modeling from roughly two weeks to a day or two and revealing actionable fixes such as increasing the cement mantle from 0.5 mm to a consistent 2.0 mm to improve stress distribution and likely extend implant life. Altair’s tools also let surgeons simulate screw placement and select better off‑the‑shelf implants, producing measurable workflow speedups and engineering insights that improve surgical planning and implant longevity.

Scripps Health

Darryl D’Lima

Director SCORE’s Orthopedic Research Laboratory