InMotion: Memphis institute re-writing the book on orthopedic research

Memphis Business Journal
July 7, 2006
By Richard Tarr

I have heard hundreds -- if not 1,000 -- stories.

After 30-plus years as a bioengineer, an executive in the orthopedics industry, and now as president and executive director of the InMotion Musculoskeletal Institute, I have been witness to the musculoskeletal disorders and traumas people face, and the treatment people receive to relieve pain and restore mobility.

For example, in one story, a mother is able to renew her hobby of nature walking after having not one, but both, knees replaced with artificial implants.

In another story, an athlete returns to play after minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery.

In yet another story, an elderly man, the victim of a particularly brutal auto accident, undergoes a new hip procedure that is less invasive than its predecessors, and that returns him to work and to the lives of his grandchildren faster and with less pain.

These are the stories of an American population affected by musculoskeletal diseases or trauma. By "musculoskeletal" I mean anything affecting the bones, cartilage or ligaments in the human body, including the back and neck.

The reason there are so many of these stories is that musculoskeletal conditions represent the No. 1 cause of disability worldwide. People miss more days of work, experience the most pain and seek treatment most often because of musculoskeletal complaints.

There is a cost of $254 billion annually for musculoskeletal conditions. That number only includes medical treatments.

It doesn't account for the financial loss due to the 488 million days of restricted activity each year. That's 488 million days of less pay, of less time with the ones we love and less time maintaining healthy habits, like exercise.

There are other stories, of course, of extraordinary innovation and success in the creation of new and improved treatments for musculoskeletal disorders and trauma, and I had the chance to share in a good number of those.

In 2005, I retired from DePuy, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, as its executive vice president of Worldwide Research and Emerging Technologies. At the time, I figured the story of my active research was coming to an end, and I would spend my time playing more golf and acting as a patient educator about musculoskeletal issues.

But the folks from Memphis Tomorrow and the Campbell Foundation figured I still had a few chapters left to write. The vision was to create in Memphis a worldwide center for musculoskeletal research.

The leaders of those groups called me, and the idea intrigued me out of retirement. I could see all the elements we needed to succeed in Memphis. Already in place was a fantastically strong orthopedics industry element, second in the world only to Warsaw itself.

Also in place were two large research universities, one of the world's busiest trauma hospitals, one of the world's best orthopedic surgical departments, and the world's center of logistics.

I arrived in Memphis in July 2005 as the founding president and executive director of InMotion, an independent and not-for-profit research laboratory that focuses specifically on musculoskeletal disorders and trauma. Providing our seed funding were the Hyde Family Foundations and the Campbell Foundation.

In less than a year, InMotion has welcomed its administrative staff, recruited a board of directors, a scientific advisory committee, and an executive advisory committee. The company now is incorporated, and it should receive IRS not-for-profit tax status this year.

In December 2005, we initiated a critically acclaimed quarterly lecture series that brings some of the world's best orthopedic surgeons and researchers to Memphis.

At the same time, InMotion has earned nearly $3.6 million in funding for its research programs over the next three years from the Assisi Foundation of Memphis, Inc., and the Plough Foundation.

We are now building our laboratories at 20 S. Dudley, the home of the Memphis Bioworks Foundation. It will be 6,000 square feet, housing a Biomechanics and a yet-to-be-determined biologics laboratory. We are also recruiting clinician scientists -- those physicians who conduct research -- in conjunction with the University of Tennessee Department of Orthopedic Surgery-Campbell Clinic, as well as a director of biomechanics in partnership with the University of Memphis Department of Biomedical Engineering.

These researchers and these partnerships will make InMotion a unique entity: an independent and Memphis-based orthopedic laboratory, a not-for-profit institution that can be the nexus at which industry, clinical treatment, and academic research intersects to create new and better treatments for musculoskeletal patients.

The future of musculoskeletal research is here, in Memphis. This city is going to earn the attention of the world as it notices the successes we achieve here.

For a guy like me who is used to hearing stories, this one ranks up top.

RICHARD TARR is the president and executive director of InMotion. He can be reached at 759-3285.