Faculty Details

2024 Meeting Faculty Details

Carl Imhauser, PhD

Hospital for Special Surgery
New York, NY UNITED STATES

Dr. Carl Imhauser is an Associate Scientist in the Department of Biomechanics at HSS. He joined the Biomechanics Department in 2006 as a post-doctoral researcher and transitioned to a faculty position in 2010 after completing an NIH-funded post-doctoral fellowship through the Clinical and Translational Science Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Imhauser completed his undergraduate (Temple University 1997) and graduate training (Drexel University 2004) in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, respectively. His graduate research focused on image-based computational modeling of human joints. Reflecting the broader mission of the Biomechanics Department, the overarching research mission of his group is to enable world-class orthopaedic care through innovative engineering. This mission is accomplished by providing objective, personalized, mechanics-based rationale for treatment decisions and then translating research findings from the lab to clinical practice. The research focus of Dr. Imhauser's group centers on the topic of joint stability. This focus is driven by the belief that understanding the mechanisms by which a joint maintains stability is critical to addressing common clinical challenges encountered in the treatment of sports injuries and in total knee arthroplasty. In sports medicine, his team addresses the problem of early graft failure following reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in high-risk athletes including young, active men and women participating in pivoting sports, such as soccer and basketball. In knee arthroplasty, his research focuses on patient dissatisfaction stemming from feelings of knee joint instability. Specific goals are to: 1) enhance ACL injury prevention protocols; 2) design more sensitive and specific ACL injury screening tools; 3) develop novel surgical treatments customized to an individual's sex, sport, age, level of play, and injury status; and 4) devise novel implant designs and surgical techniques to reduce incidence rates of knee instability following total knee replacement. This interdisciplinary work necessitates close collaboration among orthopaedic surgeons, radiologists, therapists, statisticians, engineers, and epidemiologists. A suite of in vitro, in vivo, and in silico tools are used to achieve these goals. Patient-specific computational modeling, cadaveric robotic testing, and objective in vivo clinical assessment of knee stability using custom designed robotic measurement devices are key model systems used in this research. On-going projects include the following: 1) quantifying loads applied during common clinical assessments of knee stability such as the pivot shift exam to develop more reliable and objective exams; 2) identifying more sensitive and specific biomechanical risk factors for ACL injury via population-based computational multibody dynamics modeling of the knee; and 3) developing an ‘early warning system’ for ACL graft failure via integrated 3D MRI-imaging of graft structure and composition, in silico prediction of ACL graft forces during high demand activities, and objective assessment of 3D knee stability via in vivo robotic testing. A second research focus is improving reproducibility of research findings in modeling and simulation (M&S) of the knee joint through a multi-institutional and open collaboration among experts in the field. In particular, the subjective decisions of the model developer, the 'art' of M&S, may be a critical barrier to achieve reproducibility impeding adoption of these powerful tools. This collaboration addresses this issue through prospective documentation of modeling workflows, head-to-head comparison of model predictions across groups, and widespread dissemination of model results. Dr. Imhauser is an active member of the Orthopaedic Research Society.

1/29/2024 06:45 - 06:50	Hokkaido Ballroom (3rd Floor)	Female ACL Presentation Computational Knee Models Predict Greater ACL Force During a Simulated Pivot Shift Maneuver in Female Athletes with Noncontact ACL Injuries than Uninjured Controls Presenter
1/29/2024 06:50 - 06:55	Hokkaido Ballroom (3rd Floor)	Female ACL Presentation Combined Role of Lateral Tibial Cartilage Slope, AP Knee Laxity, and Lower Extremity Strength as Risk Factors for First-Time, Noncontact ACL Injury in Female Athletes Presenter
1/29/2024 09:20 - 10:05	Hokkaido Ballroom (3rd Floor)	Basic Research Moderator